


That Ocean Gem

by Endie



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, evil!WD, good!BD, good!YD, written before Familiar
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2021-01-08 07:57:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 44,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21232436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Endie/pseuds/Endie
Summary: Cross-posted from Wattpad at EndieStoriesThis story contains Stapis, so if you don't ship it, I wouldn't recommend reading this. But if you're curious, jump on in!After Steven's recent escape from Homeworld and White Diamond's forces, his current mental state is damaged. Why? Well, that's because his best friend Connie got killed during their escape. So not only does he have to deal with one of his eyes gone, but the death of his best friend. The gems have tried to help him snap out of his depression, but nothing has worked, until a certain blue gem comes along.Lapis Lazuli decides to help Steven cope with his loss by deciding to hang out with him more and cheer him up while doing so. But as she does this, she starts to develop feelings towards Steven. Feelings of warmth, safety, and most of all, love. But when Lapis holds her developing feelings inside, she starts to wonder if Steven, her beach summer fun buddy, feels the same way too.But does he? Find out in this SU romance story.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Realised in the Wattpad copy of this story that there is a BIG error involving Smokey Quartz and Jon's interaction together. So I've edited that part up so it makes sense.

Somewhere on Homeworld.... 

The whole area was red alarm. Many sirens and blaring alarms were the only sound in one sector of Homeworld, the home planet of the Gem race. Currently under control by the Diamond Authority, or rather, the First One. White Diamond, she was called. She was an unforgiving, merciless gem matriarch who would do anything to keep order correct on Homeworld, especially in her court.

But why were the alarms blaring on Homeworld? Well, that's because there was a group of rebel gems and a pair of Diamonds who were trying to escape through the hangar. You see, Steven somehow managed to escape his mother's room when White had placed him there after their short encounter, but not before a few dastardly things happened to him but you don't need to know that now. Anyway, he managed to escape his mother's room, reunite with the gems and make their way forward to escape.

Right now, they were at the hangar, where White Diamond had ordered for Pink Diamond's Ship to be stored there until further notice. As the gems entered the hangar, they were ambushed by a ton of White Diamond's soldiers. This caused the gems to take cover while they tried to advance forward towards the ship.

Steven, now with a white eyepatch on his right eye, was currently trying to take some of the soldier gems out with his shield all while trying to keep Connie safe. Since she didn't have a weapon to fight with, she was pretty much vulnerable, so Steven had to keep her safe from any of the opposing gems from getting their hands on her.

Then Garnet, who was firing her gauntlets towards the opposing enemy, turned to everyone else. "We're pinned down! Is there anymore ideas we could use?"

"Well we can't make them stand down." Blue Diamond stated, who was currently shrunken down so she could hide behind cover. "They're part of White's court and won't follow mine or Yellow's orders."

"We really need a better plan." Yellow said, also shrunken down and holding her sword in her left hand while in her right was her hand sparking with yellow electricity. "We stay here any longer, we might as well call it our end."

"Yellow's right." Amethyst spoke, holding her whip while pressing her hand onto her bruised shoulder. "And I don't want to die on a planet hell-bent on killing us!"

Yellow and Blue gave an almost angry look to Amethyst. "No offence to you guys, since, well, we're now in a truce."

"I might have an idea!" Steven called out.

The group turned to Steven, even Garnet. "I think we should try and flank them, one half of us goes up that walkway by the left of us and the other half goes around the other ships and attack the gems on that side."

The group was silent for a moment, processing the idea through their heads. Then, Garnet spoke up. "It should work. The opposing gems should have a harder time hitting either side since they've got us at either side of them."

Garnet then raised a hand. "All in favour of doing Steven's idea?"

All the gems raised their hands and said "I."

"Good. Now we should choose which side we should go down." Garnet stated. "I say Steven, Connie, Amethyst, and Blue Diamond go to the upper walkway and me, Pearl and Yellow will go around the ships. Is that clear?"

"Wait!" Steven suddenly yelled. "I have one more thing that could help us!"

"Whatever it is, it better be good." Amethyst remarked.

"Oh trust me." Steven then held up a small little button. "It will be good."

Steven then pressed his finger on the button, causing a red light and a beeping noise to emit from it. Afterwards, the gems were all just confused. What purpose did his thing even have to the plan?

"Uh, dude. Is that it?" Amethyst spoke. "Nothing happened-"

Then, a loud roar came from the outside of the hangar, somehow managing to overpower the sound of the alarms. This sudden roar also caused the opposing gems to stop attacking and look around the hangar, looking for whatever made the noise.

Pearl then looked at Amethyst, wondering if it was what she thought it was. "That roar wasn't me. My stomach isn't that loud-"

Then the sound of glass shattering and something landing onto the ground replaced the roar from a few seconds ago. And then the sound of a gem yelling, "WHAT THE HECK IS THAT-"

But the gem didn't get to finish their sentence as they were grabbed by a big, coal black hand with silver veins and their head was pulled off, causing their physical form to poof.

"Attack whatever that thing is!" Another gem yelled out, causing the opposing gems to go after the newcomer in the hangar.

"That's our signal! Everyone go!" Steven yelled.

The group nodded and they split up into their groups as Steven's group went up the walkway to the upper level while Garnet's group went around the ships on the right side of the hangar. Steven and Amethyst even managed to fuse for extra defence as they attacked gem after gem with their signature yo-yo weapon. Blue Diamond was leading them, holding her blue scythe as she stabbed a Tourmaline in the head when they tried to land a hit on her.

Connie looked to the right side of the hangar, seeing that the others were making good progress too as they were taking down gems faster than you could say 'Irish Wrist-watch'. She also saw what had recently entered the hangar and started attacking the opposing gems. It was a tall, muscular figure with coal black skin and silvery veins around it. It's face was devoid of expression as the only thing she could see for facial features was some black eyes with white pupils and a giant mouth filled with sharp teeth. She didn't even know if this was some kind of corrupted gem on Homeworld that had somehow managed to respond to what Steven pressed a few seconds ago, or if it was something she'd seen in a comic book that had somehow come to life. After all, the way the beast/figure looked reminded her of a super-villain she had read about in a comic her dad gave her.

Meanwhile with Garnet's group, they were almost to the leg ship as Garnet and Pearl swung and poofed gems left and right with their gauntlets and spear/trident respectively while Yellow managed to finish off a group of gems with her yellow lightning, causing a chain reaction that poofed the other gems around that group too.

Finally, Steven's group along with Garnet's group made it to the gate leading to the opening of the ship, along with the mysterious muscular black figure that had landed beside them. Then, the coal black skin retracted inwards in a goo-like motion to reveal a pale skinned human with green eyes, medium-length black hair and wearing a black vest and white pants. This surprised Connie and the other gems, but not Smokey, as he walked up to the human/gem fusion and fist bumped them.

"You called me, kid?" The human asked.

"Well, I was thinking that since I'm about to escape off this place, you might want to come along." Smokey's Steven side replied. "And also, me and my family kinda needed your help with those gems so we could reach the ship."

"I guess since I helped you escape White Diamond the first time, I guess I should get the chance to come to Earth." The human then said, smiling afterwards.

"Um, Ste-man?" Amethyst's side asked, her head tilted sideways. "Who's this dude?"

The human chuckled. "Steven's told me a lot about you people. I'm Jon, and that you just saw attacking those gems back there was my partner Onyx."

Then, Jon's eyes changed to a complete black colour. "Yes, I do put on quite a show..." 

The group gasped as they heard this new human say this with his eyes changed and his voice a lot darker. But Jon's eyes went back to their usual colour and looked back at the gems. "Yeah, sorry if I freaked you out there. Onyx does have a tendency to pop out at random times."

"Steven!" Garnet called out, her and the other two in her group finally reaching the others. She then stopped as she saw the unfamiliar human standing in their way of the ship's opening. "Steven... Who is this?"

"Oh, Garnet! This is my new friend Jon! He's a hybrid just like me!" Steven's side of Smokey cheerfully replied, wrapping an arm around his legs.

The group responded to his last statement with confused expressions. "Jon's a hybrid? But I thought Steven was the only gem hybrid alive."

"I was made before Steven was born." Jon replied to Connie's comment. "I'm an Onyx hybrid. Hence why my partner is called Onyx."

"Well. I guess that makes sense..." Yellow remarked, looking away from the Onyx hybrid while having a slight disgusted expression.

Then suddenly, the alarms in the hangar started blaring again, causing a few more doors to open where more solider gems ran out and towards the gems.

"Ah crap! They've sent reinforcements!" Jon yelled, pulling out a strange, pistol-looking weapon from behind his white pants. "Get inside the ship, everybody!"

The gems nodded and one by one the gems entered, even the diamonds who had to shrink down a bit so they could fit into the opening but grew back to their original size once they were inside the ship. Pearl was the next to head in as she fired a few energy shots from her spear and managed to hit a few gems before running inside. Smoky unfused as Amethyst ran inside along with Garnet and Jon, who put away his weapon and ran into the ship.

The only ones left at the gate was Steven and Connie who were running towards the opening in the ship, but with a giant group of gems running after them lead by a Citrine. Steven and Connie then sprinted toward the opening, with Steven getting their first and waiting at the opening for Connie to reach him, who was a little bit slower than Steven but almost there.

"C'mon Connie! You're nearly here!" Steven yelled to the Indian-American, who looked to be running out of breath.

"Almost there, Steven!" Connie yelled back. "I'm almost-"

But then, something happened. She then felt something pierce her back, enter her body and come out of the front. This had caused her to stop running, and to look down at what had happened. She gasped as she then slowly, but weakly looked back up at her best friend, who was covering his mouth in horror as he looked at what had happened to her.

The Citrine's sword had impaled Connie, right through the chest.

"CONNIE!!" Steven screamed.

"S-Steven..." Connie whispered, as her eyes shut closed as she let out her last breath and fell to the floor, blood pooling around her now lifeless body.

Steven's eye then filled with tears as he fell to his knees. "Nooooo! Connie!"

But just as the opposing gems were about to run toward him for recapture and being sent back to White Diamond, Garnet's outstretched hand wrapped around him and pulled him into the ship, closing the opening afterward.

Garnet then lead him to the controls, placing him down on the movement pad and causing the pink light to emit around his legs. But instead of staying put, he tried to run off the pad and towards the opening he got pulled into. But Garnet and Jon managed to catch him and hold him down.

"Let me go!" Steven cried, tears dripping down from his eye. "I-I need to save her!"

"You can't save her, kid." Jon said. "She's gone..."

"B-But my tears! T-They can resurrect her!" Steven argued back, still crying.

"We don't have time." Garnet responded, placing him back onto the movement pad. She then took his legs and moved them in a running movement and got the ship into orbit, flying out the hangar where the soldier gems dragged away Connie's now dead body.

Once they were a far enough distance from Homeworld, Pearl put the ship into hyper speed as the ship zipped out of Homeworld's sights and into a speed tunnel. She also put it into auto-pilot as Steven was now off the movement pad and crying in one corner of the ship.

Blue and Yellow Diamond were sat in the places they were sat at when they were traveling to Homeworld in this same ship, currently looking at Steven cry into Amethyst's arms, who was trying to comfort him after what he had just seen. All while Garnet, Pearl and Jon worked at the ships controls.

Amethyst hated seeing her little brother like this, all sad and crying like. Even if she didn't like crying, she really didn't like when she saw Steven cry. She kept her purple arms wrapped around the little hybrid child as she rubbed his back, like an older sister comforting her little brother.

"It's alright, Steven...." Amethyst whispered into his ear. "No ones gonna hurt you. Not with us watching you...."

"I-It's not alright!" Steven sobbed, pulling Amethyst in tighter. "C-C-Connie's d-dead... A-And I could've s-saved her...."

"But if you did, we'd lose you again!" Amethyst responded. "Connie may have been revived, but you would've been captured again and probably tortured in worser fashions than what White already did to you! She took your eye, put you through those horrible visions you saw, and I don't wanna imagine what she would've done if you were captured again!"

She then pulled Steven's head from her chest and made him look at her, his left eye red from the crying and his nose slightly running with snot. "Steven, if we ever lost you, our non-existent hearts wouldn't be able to take it. We love you more than you ever know. Always remember that, Ste-man..."

She then pulled Steven in for another embrace, almost as if she wanted to squish all her love for him into his body. The gems all got teary-eyed, especially Blue, who had caused the whole ship to cry due to her ability to make all those surrounding her cry.

Jon looked back at Pearl after looking at Amethyst's attempts to comfort him. "Are we nearly at Earth?"

"We should be coming in right now." Pearl answered. "Lightspeed is about to stop."

And so the lightspeed on the ship stopped, causing the view of the Earth to zoom into existence as the ship descended into the Earth, where it would land in the same spot it took off on.


	2. Landing

Meanwhile, on Earth...

Bismuth was hammering in the last few nails into the white-coloured wood plank with her hammer hand while Greg was finishing off the roof tiles. After the others left, Greg suggested to Bismuth that while they wait for Lapis and Peridot to reform, they should repair the damage to Steven's house. Bismuth agreed to this and got to work on taking the wooden planks that made up his house from the damaged parts of it and repairing them while Greg got out his toolbox and went to work alongside Bismuth.

"How's it going down there, Bismuth?" Greg asked, looking down at her from the roof.

Bismuth looked up at Greg and gave him a thumbs up. "I'm almost done. Just got these last ones to do before it's finished."

Greg nodded and went back to hammering in the last tile in the roof. Once that was done, he wiped away the sweat that clinged to his forehead and put away his tools into the toolbox. "I'm done up here!"

"That's good. I'm also done." Bismuth said, reforming her hammer hand back into a normal hand. The two stepped away from the house and saw at how good of a job they did with repairing it. It looked like nothing had even happened to it, thus giving a good finish to a simple repair job.

"Well, I'd say I call this unqualified success!" Greg mused, taking off his heavy working gloves.

"I'm surprised you did this without a simple schematic." Bismuth said. "Usually when I repair things or make new weapons, I usually have a schematic of some kind."

"Well, not a lot of the house was damaged, so it was easy to repair and get in the right way." Greg stated.

Bismuth let out a small chuckle. "I guess you could say that. At least it'll look presentable to Steven once he comes home."

And just then, Bismuth and Greg heard the familiar sound of a gem reforming, which was coming from inside the house. Bismuth ran up to the house, opened the door and saw the gems of Lapis and Peridot glowing a bright white and raised into the air. Then, a white figure burst out of the gems as it shifted between different forms until it settled on one. Then, the white light flashed away from the two figures and the familiar forms of Lapis and Peridot were now in view.

Lapis was wearing a brighter blue dress with a navy blue star at the chest and now wearing a ribbon-like belt on her waist. Her hair, face or body didn't really change but she still had bare feet and the loose ribbon at the back of her dress.

Peridot kept the same jumpsuit but with yellow stars instead of diamonds and she was also wearing the same visor she wore before she got poofed. Her hair, face and body kept the same too.

Then, the two gems fell to the floor, groaning at the sudden impact as Lapis pulled herself up and scratched her head. "Ugh... What happened?"

"Welcome back, Lapis." Bismuth greeted, giving a small smile to the water gem.

Peridot groaned as Lapis pulled her up on her feet, her eyes looking slightly tired. "My stars, what happened?"

"Well, you two got poofed by Yellow Diamond." Bismuth briefly explained. "Thankfully, I managed to save your gems."

"Well, I thank you for managing to keep our gems intact while we reformed, Bismuth." Peridot said, nodding towards the rainbow haired gem. "Anyway, now that's done with, where's Steven?"

Bismuth then broke into a nervous sweat. How was she gonna break to these gems that loved Steven so much that he had gone to Homeworld to try and make a deal with a psychotic matriarch gem? She considered the possibilities of what could happen if she told the two gems this information. But of course, not being Garnet, she couldn't make out what their reactions were gonna be.

"If only Garnet was here, then she'd probably tell me..." Bismuth thought.

"Uhhh, well... Steven's... Well...." Bismuth stuttered, still in a nervous sweat.

"Bismuth, where is Steven?" Lapis asked, getting a little worried about her beach summer fun buddy.

Bismuth then let out a sigh. "He's gone to Homeworld with the others and the Diamonds to try and... Well..."

"Make some sort of deal with White Diamond..."

The two gems gasped in horror of the mention of the First One's name. "W-White Diamond?! But that gem is impossible to talk to!"

"Peridot's right!" Lapis cried out. "From my time on Homeworld, I know that White is a very apathetic gem. Who knows what she'd do to Steven!"

Bismuth then held out her hands in a 'calm down' motion. "Look, just calm down." She then pressed a hand onto Lapis and Peridot's shoulders. "He'll be fine, he's got the diamond on his side now."

"The diamonds?!" Peridot cried out in shock. "How'd he manage to get through to them?!"

"I don't know for sure, but what I do kinda know is that whenever Steven's knocked out pretty hard, he gets access to this realm where he can somehow communicate with everyone around him. He managed to get the diamonds to listen when he used some sort of aura since it was one of Pink Diamond's abilities." Bismuth explained, in the best detail she could.

"Wait. Steven has access to Pink Diamond's powers? How? I thought his gem was a Rose Quartz..." Lapis questioned, tilting her head to the side.

"Oh! I forgot you haven't been on Earth for a while to take a catch on what happened recently." Peridot spoke.

"Yeah, I really need someone to explain this to me." Lapis said. "Do you know?"

"Bismuth knows and so do I." Peridot answered. "I'll give you the rundown of what's happened while you were gone."

Peridot then went on to talk about how Pearl let Steven enter her gem to find her phone, only for it to turn into a shocking revelation about his mother. She then told Lapis about how it was all done, the fake shattering, the time where Pink shapeshifted into Rose Quartz for the first time, how she started the rebellion and everything Steven had told her about the revelation and everything else.

By the end, Lapis was wide eyed and looking at her surroundings, looking really shocked about what she had just heard. She then took a look at her own blue hand and then back at Peridot and Bismuth. "Wow... I.. This... This is a lot to take in...."

"Me and Peridot here had the same feelings as you, Lapis." Bismuth stated. "I just never knew how Pink could even manage to start a thing like this and somehow still live through it and give birth to Steven later on."

"It shocks me too..." Lapis whispered. "But that doesn't change on how I feel about Steven... Even if he is a descendant of a diamond, he's still Steven. My beach summer fun buddy. And that's never gonna change." Lapis clutched her chest during her last line.

"And he certainly is." Bismuth remarked. "He isn't Rose, nor Pink. He's Steven. He is his own person and personality. He chooses what he does with his life and doesn't have to live up to his mother's name."

"Bismuth's right, and you're right." Peridot said. "He'll always be Steven. No matter what."

And just then, the three gems heard something coming in to land, accompanied with Greg running up the stairs and towards the door, which he slammed open and ran over to the three gems. "Steven's back!"

"Well, we'd better welcome him back then." Peridot stated, following Bismuth as they walked out the door with Greg. Lapis then followed along and watched as the pink leg ship landed onto the beach. As the ship landed, she moved forward towards the front of the group, mainly because she wanted her and Peridot to be the first ones to welcome him back since they've been worried about him.

Once the ship landed, an opening on the back of the heel opened and revealed Steven, who was then pulled into a tight embrace by Lapis and Peridot. "Steven! You're back!"

Steven laughed in happiness, knowing that his two friends were back. "Guys! You've reformed!"

"We sure have. And we've got new outfits!" Peridot responded, showing her new crystal gem uniform to Steven.

"I like it! Especially yours Lapis!" Steven complemented, giving a thumbs up to the water gem.

This caused Lapis to blush a dark blue as she giggled from his complement. "Awww, thanks Steven!"

Then, the others walked out. Pearl, Garnet, Amethyst, Jon and to Bismuth and Greg's surprise, Blue and Yellow Diamond. Once everyone was out, the opening closed and the ship disabled itself.

"Wait. Why are you two here? I thought you'd be back on Homeworld going back to your usual duties." Bismuth asked the two tall gem matriarchs.

"Well, since we've been accessories to Pink's escape, we're now traitors to Homeworld." Blue Diamond replied. "And besides, now that I know she's alive, why would I ever want a crazy gem like White Diamond to watch over her?"

"Blue, please." Yellow spoke, crossing her arms. "I thought that we'd agree to call him Steven instead of Pink. We promised, did you forget?"

"Oh, sorry." Blue apologised. "Still trying to break the habit."

Since Lapis and Peridot were looking at the two Diamonds talk, they then looked back at Steven with smiles. "I guess that new ability of yours has managed to get them on your side, am I correct?"

"Yep!" Steven said. "Now we're cool."

The two gems giggled with Steven as they hugged him once more. They had really missed their friend, especially Lapis, who was so eager to show Steven her new outfit that she almost rushed her regeneration to do it. Thankfully, she didn't, and took her time. In a surprising amount of hours, if I say so myself.

A few minutes of reunion pass by and now all the gems are inside the newly repaired beach house, where everyone, including Blue and Yellow Diamond who had shrunken down to fit inside, was sitting around the living area listening to Steven introduce his new hybrid friend, Jon.

"He's a super cool guy! He can create weapons out of this weird black ooze that can come from anywhere in his body, fly and even turn into this super cool version of himself!"

"Well, not a version of myself, necessarily. I have a 'partner' called Onyx and he can transform me into this beast that really helps out when a fight is in progress." Jon corrected.

"How about you show them? I think all of us would like to see it!" Steven suggested.

But this just caused Jon to hold up his hands in defence. "As much as I'd love to show you all, especially you two diamonds, but I don't think Onyx is up for it today, not after what just happened a few moments ago."

Jon's eyes then went black. "You don't wanna disappoint the kid now, do you? How about we just do it, for show of course."

Jon sighed. "Alright then Onyx, fine."

Jon then got up from the couch and stepped near the door, looking toward the group of gems on the couch. "You may want to stand back for this."

Amethyst, Lapis and Peridot took a few steps back from Jon and stopped once they were far away as they could get from Jon. His eyes went black again and a black ooze-like substance covered his body, doubling his height and width. Finally, once the transformation was complete, Onyx was standing in the same position Jon was. Still looking the same as he did, coal black skin, silver veins, black eyes with white pupils and a large mouth with more teeth than a shark or a bear.

"Impressed?" Onyx asked.

Yellow smirked as she looked at the black beast. "Very impressed. Now show me one of your attacks."

"Anyone wanna come up and try to not get pounced on?" Onyx asked, pointing out to the group of gems.

But no one stood up to him. They looked a bit too afraid by his appearance, including Garnet, who was shaking as she looked at the alternative version of Jon Black. After a few seconds, Yellow sighed and stood up to take the challenge against Onyx.

She then got into a fighting stance, along with Onyx and then charged at her. She then tried to zap him, but the blows were absorbed by the black skin. She was then picked up by Onyx and held up to his face, which had then caused Yellow to start shuddering in fear of this so called monster.

"My skin is not so penetrable, which is a lesson that one such gem should learn when they come face to face with me..." Onyx stated, tightening his hold on Yellow's neck as she gripped onto his big black claws in an attempt to escape.

"But I'm not going to eat you, like I do with my other victims. You're a friend of Steven, but ever try to double cross me or Steven and his family..." Onyx then evilly chucked. "You're gonna have hell to pay."

Onyx then set down Yellow Diamond gently and dispersed back into Jon's body as his familiar figure reappeared from where Onyx was standing. "So, what do ya think?"

The gems were just mortified at what they had just seen. It was like something you'd see in a horror film. Even Blue was shaking at what she'd seen, who was currently hugging Yellow as she was still shuddering at her close encounter with Onyx.

After a few seconds of silence, Amethyst then spoke up. "Now that is unlike anything I've ever seen!"

Jon smiled as the rest of the room slowly clapped at Amethyst's comment. "Even if it looked scary as heck, I'd sure recruit this guy!"

"I mean, if you need to go against a pretty tough gem or one of those corrupted beasts, I guess I'm your guy for the job." Jon remarked.

Steven chuckled, then looked at Yellow and Blue Diamond, who had stopped shaking and were now back into their normal stances. "Now what about you guys? Since you really can't return to Homeworld anymore since White would probably shatter you, what's your next course in action?"

The two diamonds looked at each other for a few moments, then looked back at the hybrid child. "Well, like I said back outside, since we've now become accessories to your escape from White Diamond, it's a better idea not to return."

"So we've had the idea of staying here with you, here on Earth." Blue said.

The whole room went wide eyed, especially Peridot, Lapis, Bismuth and Garnet, at Blue's decision for both her and Yellow. Steven gasped in surprise as he walked up to them, a small smile on his face.

"You two would stay here? For real?"

"I mean it's been a long time since I've seen my little Pink, so why not spend some time with her offspring?" Blue remarked.

"Even if this planet isn't great... I'll at least give it a chance." Yellow spoke, sternly as always.

"So it's settled! You two and Jon will be staying here in the temple-"

"No." Garnet suddenly spoke, her voice loud and angry sounding.

"Wha? Garnet, what's wrong?" Steven asked, a bit shaken from her sudden yell.

"I'm not letting Blue stay here. She's a shatterer!" Garnet yelled. "She's shattered my friends!"

"Garnet! Please!" Steven pleaded. "Can't you just let this go? She's probably sorry!"

"I don't care if she is sorry! She still killed those who were close to me during the war!" Garnet yelled again, summoning her gauntlets afterwards.

"Garnet, stop! It's not worth it! Can't you just give her and Yellow a chance?" Steven begged, giving her some puppy dog eyes.

Garnet looked at Steven, shuddering from how hard it was not to pass on a face like that. But she then looked at Blue and Yellow Diamond, who were in some sort of defensive stance as if they were ready to attack her if she made a move.

Garnet then looked at her gauntlets, then back at Steven, still giving Garnet that face she couldn't ignore. Garnet then sighed and flashed away her gauntlets. "Fine. But if she does anything to you that could hurt you or change the way you think. Then they will pay. Understand?"

Steven nodded. Garnet looked at the diamonds and they too nodded to her demands. Garnet then nodded back and sat back down on the couch.

Then, Greg finally came back inside, putting away his phone. "Sorry to interrupt what ever was going on here, but I just got a call from Priyanka."

"She's coming over for Connie."

This made the room freeze, especially Steven, who then got reminded that not only did they escape from White Diamond, but he also lost his best friend. She was so close to the ship too, and she was just stabbed in the heart by that Citrine. Thinking of this brought a tear in his eye, as his heart started to ache at the pain of Connie's death.

Lapis took notice of this and placed a hand on Steven's shoulder. "Are you alright, Steven?"

But hearing those words come out of Lapis' mouth was enough to make Steven burst into tears. She then took him in for a caring embrace as she wrapped her arms around his body and that his face met her chest as she listened to his muffled cries. This hurt the ocean gem, she didn't like seeing her beach summer fun buddy cry and he knew it too. She knew that he didn't like seeing her cry, but Lapis couldn't help but let out a tear from her right eye as she hugged Steven tighter.

Lapis then looked up at Garnet and asked, "What happened?"

Garnet took off her visor, showing her sad eyes. "His best friend, Connie, died. She was killed by a Citrine during our escape. Right in front of Steven's view."

Lapis looked back at Steven and rubbed his back with her left hand. She knew that him and Connie shared a close bond to each other as best friends but hearing that she was killed right in his eyes (or rather, eye) made her more sad for her friend. She pulled Steven in closer as his sobs continued and Lapis continuing her attempt to comfort her beach summer fun buddy.

"I'm sorry for your loss." Lapis spoke, poking her lips onto his forehead and giving him a short kiss on the head.

"I'm so, so sorry...."


	3. Eye For An Eye

A few minutes later....

After Lapis managed to comfort Steven enough for him to stop crying, the gems all sat back down onto the couch and waited for the Maheswaran's to come by so they could explain what had happened to their daughter. It was a very long silence, as mostly no one spoke for the next few minutes since nobody had anything to say.

Then the silence was broken with Priyanka and Doug Maheswaran bursting into the house and looking around the house for their kid. "Connie! We're here!"

"Connie?" Priyanka asked, walking around the house until freezing when she came into eye contact with the gems on the couch, looking at her with sad expressions.

"Uh, what's with the long faces?" She then asked.

Garnet then got up from her seat and walked up to Dr. Maheswaran, taking off her visor to show her sad eyes. "Dr. Maheswaran. We have some... Bad news about your daughter..."

"What?!" Doug exclaimed. "What happened to our daughter? Did she get a serious illness? Did she get seriously injured?!"

"No... It's worse..." Garnet stated, a tear forming in her blue Sapphire eye. The Maheswaran's gasped as they probably knew what this meant.

Priyanka's expression changed to a worried one. "D-Did she.."

"I'm afraid she's gone... She got killed during our escape..." Garnet confirmed. "A Citrine stabbed her, right in the heart..."

Priyanka covered her mouth as she sobbed into her husband's arms, tightly clutching onto his shoulders as she cried. Doug took a brief look at his wife before looking back at Garnet. "But I-I thought this was a diplomatic mission? You said s-she would've been f-fine!"

"It was..." Garnet stated. "Until it changed once we were ambushed..."

Priyanka just cried more at this information as Doug kept holding onto his dear wife as she cried about her only daughter now dead. Steven just looked at the couple as they looked completely destroyed about their child's demise. Sure, Priyanka had raised Connie quite strictly, but that didn't mean she didn't love her. And even if Doug didn't like moving around to different places for different jobs, he still loved Connie the same.

Doug took one more look at Garnet, who had put back on her visor and was also watching the distraught couple. "I think w-we should go..."

"Understandable." Garnet said. "It's probably for the best..."

Doug nodded as he lead himself and his still crying wife out of the beach house and back to the car they had parked in front of the house. The couple then drove away from the Beach House, presumably for the last time.

After that was all done, Garnet sat back down on the couch and looked at Steven, who was now around Lapis and Peridot talking with them, probably so he could set his mind off of Connie and their now distraught parents.

"Steven, I think we'd like you to explain two things." Peridot stated.

"And what would those things be?" Steven asked.

"One: How did you meet this new stranger-friend? And two: What happened to one of your vision spheres?" Peridot answered.

Steven scratched his head as he looked at the two gems and the others around him. "Well, I met Jon after managing to break out of the room White Diamond had put me in. I was running through the central plaza when I met him..."

_________________________________________________________________________________________  
"Halt! Stay where you are!" One of White's Amethyst guards yelled at the hybrid.

But Steven didn't stop. He just kept on running through the central plaza of Homeworld in an attempt to escape from the guards chasing him. He had no idea how they managed to find him so quick, but it didn't matter to the Pink Diamond hybrid. All that mattered was to escape.

He ran down alleyways and even knocked down some items in an attempt to slow the Amethyst guards down. It did work, but not for long as the guards were quite faster than Steven and more agile than him too. Steven even threw his shield at them, which did poof a guard as it did pierce through their physical form at one point. But the others, he would only be able to stun them for a while until he could find a way to sidetrack them.

Steven kept running and running until he eventually reached a dead end. He then froze as he almost hit the wall, but didn't. Then, the remaining Amethyst guards caught up to him and picked him up by his shirt, which was slightly ripped from his escape from Pink's Room.

"Thought you could run away like that, didn't you?" The guard taunted.

"Well, White's not gonna be proud of you for running away from her, is she?" The other guard stated.

"Let's take Pink in." The lead guard spoke. "White Diamond will handle the rest-"

And just then, alarm sirens could be heard along with the feint sound of glass shattering as something big was coming their way. The Amethyst guards then looked over at White's Tower; The Shard, only to see it on high alert as multiple drones flew out of the tower and out into Homeworld.

"What's going on?" One of the guards asked.

The lead guard didn't answer, instead, their face was contorted into fear as she knew what The Shard meant when it was on high alert. "The hybrid's escaped..."

Then, the guards yelped as they heard a loud roar come from a building near them. They readied their whips and took their stances to face off against whatever this unknown thing was. Then the sound of what could be described as a stampede replaced the alarms and roaring as the stomping got louder and louder.

The lead guard quickly turned their head towards her platoon. "GET OUT OF THE WAY-"

But it was too late, a big, muscular, coal black beast burst through the building in front of them and grabbed the lead guard, causing her to shake as they looked into her purple eyes. The other guards screamed in cowardly fear as they then ran away from the beast carrying their leader.

"You know, you shouldn't treat royalty like that..." The figure darkly spoke.

The lead guard tried to pull away from them, but couldn't since their strength had no use on this monstrosity. All they could do was look into their eyes and grab onto the beast's hands. "What are you?"

The coal black figure chuckled as their grip tightened. "I, or rather we, are Onyx."

"W-What do y-you want from me, O-Onyx...?" The leader choked out.

"What I'd like for you to do, is for you to leave this hybrid alone..." Onyx stated. "Because if you don't, I'll eat your whole form faster than you can say 'My diamond'..."

"B-But White..-"

The beast roared at the leader, causing them to whimper in fear. "I don't care what that parasite of a leader wants! Now go on and scram before I EAT YOU UP!!"

"O-Ok, Ok! Fine!" The leader guard yelled, still clutching onto his arms. "I-I'll go..."

"Excellent choice..." Onyx said, dropping the lead Amethyst guard. The leader then ran off as she clutched her neck and away from the deadly Onyx.

Then, Steven watched as the coal black skin retracted inwards to then reveal a normal looking male young-adult. They then walked up to Steven, causing the hybrid to cover his face as he cried in fear.

"P-Please don't eat me!" Steven yelled.

"Hey, calm down. It's fine." The human said. "I'm like you. I'm a hybrid too."

"W-What...?" Steven asked, confused about how this human knew about how Steven was a hybrid. "H-How did you-"

"Heard about you from some guards who were talking about you right after you landed her and got sent to that room of your mother's." The hybrid replied.

He then held out his hand. "I'm Jon. Jon Black."

Steven took his hand as he was then hoisted up by the new hybrid. "Steven Universe... I-It's good to meet a friendly face for once..."

_________________________________________________________________________________  
"And so we decided to pair up until I found you guys and we went our separate ways for a little bit. He then gave me this little remote that can give him a signal for when I need help while I'm on here." He then held up the same remote he used in the hangar, still intact from the fighting. "But since he's gonna be living here now, I don't know what I'm gonna do with this."

"I'd keep it in case something happens on here." Jon said. "You never know when you might need it."

"Good point, Jon." Steven stated.

"Wow... I'm glad he decided to help you..." Lapis spoke. "If he wasn't there to save you, you probably would've been sent back to White... Thankfully, you're here with us.."

Steven smiled at the water gem. "Never can keep a Universe held up forever, right?"

"Yep!" Peridot snickered. "But I'd still like to know how you lost your vision sphere..."

Steven's face dropped. He didn't like to look back at what happened, since it was both painful and horrible to experience. The two gems noticed this and rubbed the hybrid child's back. "I... I shouldn't have asked... I-It's alright if you don't want t-to talk about it..."

"N-No it's fine..." Steven responded. "I'll tell you. Even if the others and Jon know what happened. "

Steven took a deep breath and exhaled before starting. Lapis wrapped an arm around the boy, smiling at him. "If you want to stop, you can. We won't ask for you to speak of it again.."

Steven chuckled. "Thanks Lapis..."

"Anyway, it was a few hours after I got placed into my mom's room. I was just alone, hearing nothing but the sounds of Homeworld around me while I awaited what would come next..."

__________________________________________________  
Steven was currently fidgeting his fingers around as he looked around the room, currently thinking what the gems, Connie and the Diamonds are currently thinking about how they just saw him get taken away so suddenly by White Pearl.

"They are probably worrying about me..." He thought, his heart starting to ache at the thought of the gems crying. He hated to see them cry, especially his big sister figure Amethyst. They had come so close together as siblings recently and he never wanted to change that. Garnet and Pearl he saw as his mother figures. They had cared for him so much over the years that he was now starting to see them come even closer. Especially with Garnet and his idea to get Ruby and Sapphire married.

His mind then went to Connie. His best friend. The sword fighter. Even if she failed horribly with her attempted attack on Blue Diamond back on the beach that ended up with Rose's Sword being destroyed, he still cared for the girl. He saw her as a sister figure like Amethyst. He thought that she wasn't taking this too well, probably breaking down over what had just happened but staying determined enough to save her best friend.

His thoughts were then interrupted when he gasped in shock at the sight of White Pearl by the side of him looking at him with that blank, emotionless look she always had.

"My Diamond requests your presence." White Pearl said.

Steven sighed. He then got up and walked towards White Pearl. Soon enough, a white bubble covered the two of them as she then flew them up to the top of The Shard. During the trip, he kept thinking about if White Pearl was always like she was. If she always had that cracked eye, if she always had that personality, if she always was White's Pearl-

Wait. That last thought. Steven had noticed the placement of White Pearl's gem. It was on her navel. And when he thought back to how Yellow and Blue's Pearls looked, they had their gems on their chests, like their Diamonds. But Pink's Pearl (or rather his Pearl) had her gemstone on her forehead. Hang on, if his Pearl was Pink Diamond's, why was her gem on her forehead and not her navel? Why did White's Pearl have her gemstone on her navel? C-Could this mean?

No, Steven thought, that's crazy! Why would Pearl lie to him about who she belonged to? Why would-

But soon, his thoughts were frozen by the bubble popping and White Pearl moving away from him and out of the room, leaving nobody but him and White Diamond alone. Steven looked up at her, her bright, blank expression but still with that smile she had when he had first met her. But she wasn't in the same t-pose position White was in when he met her. Instead, she was in a normal looking posture, but either way, she was still tall and scary to Steven.

"How are you, my Starlight?" White asked, her tone creepy, but motherly sounding. "Settle in well?"

"You took me away from my family! You took me away from my friends!" Steven yelled at the tall matriarch. "Just let me go already!"

"You know why I can't do that, Starlight..." White responded. "Those friends of yours have probably forgotten about you. After all, they were involved in your little game..."

"It's not a game!" Steven yelled back. "Look, the only reason I'm here is-"

"Is because what?" White interrupted. "Because you wanted to come home? Because you want to rub it in, is that it? Well, whatever reason it is, I'm sure it's meaningless now."

"White, please!" Steven yelled. "I just want your help!"

"No can do, Starlight." White then lifted Steven up with what seemed to be telekinesis up towards her face, contorting Steven's expression to a scared one. "You disobeyed me, and you betrayed me and your sisters too. Now, you will be punished."

"W-What could you possibly do t-to me?" Steven asked, a bit stuttery due to him being right in front of White Diamond's evil face.

White evilly laughed. "For your little game you pulled, I think I know the perfect punishment..."

White stretched her hand out towards Steven, which then caused Steven to gain a huge pain in his right eye. His right eye felt like it was being stretched out of his socket. Soon enough, he then felt blood seep down from his socket and down his face. His eye now feeling like it could explode.

White then tuned up the strength of her telekinesis on his eye, causing even more pain for the star child as he eye started to seep more and more blood as the pain increased. His eye felt like it could explode at any moment.

White smirked as she reached out her other arm, stretching out her other hand toward Steven. "Know this Starlight, that you are never, ever allowed to pull anything like this again. Because if you do, there will be more severe consequences. Do I make myself clear, Starlight?"

Steven didn't respond. He was in so much pain at this point as his eye was being stressed on even harder by the psychotic tyrant. White just shrugged and wrote it off as a yes.

"I'll take it as a yes, then." White stated.

And then, without warning, Steven's right eye burst. A spray of blood burst out of his socket along with pieces of his eye all around the ceiling and even some spraying onto White. Steven screamed as he was then thrown to the ground and clutching onto his right eye socket. He cried in pain as tears fell from his left eye and the pain in his socket not even easing. He couldn't even get up since he was in that much pain.

"Pearl, take my Starlight back to her room and patch him up." White ordered.

White Pearl phased through the wall and moved towards the still pain ridden Steven. A white bubble was then formed around the two as he was carried back to Pink's Room, still clutching onto his right eye.

Or rather, the socket of where his right eye used to be.

__________________________________________________________  
Steven's left eye was then leaking tears as Lapis and Peridot both embraced the diamond hybrid. They never wanted their friend to ever endure that much pain. Steven didn't deserve to have his eye burst out by White Diamond. Lapis was sniffling as she tightly hugged him while Peridot sobbed into his body.

"G-Guys?" Steven asked.

But the only response he got was them just tightly hugging him even more. But instead of asking again, he returned the hugs from his friends. And soon enough, the gems got involved. Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, Bismuth, and even Blue got into the hug. Yellow stood by as she watched the heartfelt moment between family and friends. She wasn't good with emotions, but surely Steven could change that.

The gems kept hugging him for a few more minutes. Which just shows how much the gems love their Steven.


	4. Changes and Visits

A month later....

Ever since he's come back home, he hasn't been that happy, cheerful boy Steven always has been. Recently, he has become depressed. Ever since the death of his best friend, Steven can't seem to get over it. He still sometimes gets the nightmares of seeing his best friend get stabbed in the heart by a Homeworld gem. He felt like she didn't deserve to die.

Even if he didn't really have a lot of love related feelings toward her, he still saw her as his best friend. The best friend he would read 'Unfamiliar Familiar' books with, the best friend who would watch 'Under The Knife' with him, the best friend who trained alongside Steven. And mostly, the best friend who helped Steven form his first fusion. And now Stevonnie was dead, forever. They were never going to come back.

For the first few weeks after the incident, he had kept a far distance from the gems. All Steven wanted to do was to just go back to bed and cry himself back to sleep. The gems knew this was unlike Steven. Sure he would be sad about his best friend's death, but they didn't expect him to take it so hard and not get over it. After the memorial service of her, he was then seen looking through a scrapbook he and Connie made to share the memories they made together, sobbing immensely while doing so.

The gems had tried everything to get him out the house, but as expected, he didn't respond to any of that. Garnet and Pearl tried to get him out of the house by doing a few missions with them, but he just said he didn't want to. Amethyst would try to get him to play some video games together, but he just said he wasn't in the mood. Peridot and Lapis would ask Steven to play with them on the beach with Bismuth and the Diamonds. He did go out one time (probably due to Blue's suggestion), but he never did again the other times they asked.

Lapis' non-existent heart would clench as she saw how badly the boy was suffering over his best friend's death. All Lapis wanted to do was hug him until all the sadness was all gone and the boy she knew and loved would come back. That was all she wanted Steven to be: happy with his now expanded gem family.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another day had rolled by and the sunrise was up yet again. The early morning sky glowed a bright orange as the sun rose from the horizon as it shined upon the three structures outside the Crystal Temple.

Since Lapis was back with the barn, she, Peridot and Bismuth decided to repair it and make it part of the Temple. Now by the left side of Steven's house was a newly repainted and repaired barn, where Peridot and Lapis lived. By the right side was two tall palanquin-like structures, both coloured blue and yellow respectively. Sure, the diamonds could have just shrunken down to live in Steven's house, but Steven suggested that they deserve some privacy of their own. So Steven told Bismuth to make Blue and Yellow Diamond somewhere to stay when they weren't inside the house. Of course, the two diamonds could still shrink down to a reasonable height if they wanted to visit Steven or the gems who resided in the Barn.

The sun lit up the temple as the sun's rays lit up the house, barn and palanquins. Inside the house, Pearl was making Steven an early breakfast. A simple breakfast of eggs, bacon and pancakes with strawberries and cream on the side. Even if Steven was depressed because of Connie's death, he still ate, since he would probably catch some heat from Pearl and get a full lecture about healthy living and how food is vital for him. Not wanting to endure all that, Steven kept eating so he wouldn't have to hear it.

Inside the barn, Lapis stretched out of her hammock and rubbed her eyes. Even if she was a gem, she did sleep sometimes ever since Steven introduced her to it. She walked out onto the beach and took in the fresh, but salty beach air. Of course, Peridot was still awake, working on a new meep morp for her so-called 'meep morp museum'. She was currently building some kind of yo-yo out of trash-can lids, scrap metal and chains, the yo-yo looked similar to that which belonged to Smoky Quartz (or rather now, Smoky Diamond). Lapis then crossed her legs as she watched the sunrise over the horizon, thinking about Steven. She then started to remember the times she and Steven spent before the events that passed before. The time when she and Steven went on a boat trip, even if that didn't end well, the time when Steven helped her and Peridot with their harvest, including when they all had a meal with Steven's Uncle Andy, and all those times the three of them would watch Camp Pining Hearts or just hang out.

In all those memories, Lapis always felt something. Warmth, happiness, and connected to the hybrid child. And as she thought about this, her cheeks blushed a deep, dark blue. She pressed a hand to her chest as she then heard the memory of his little voice singing his song about her during one of the times the two would hang out. Lapis found it really sweet that Steven would write a song about her. However, she was a little confused about them. Why was she feelings them? Sure, the two were beach summer fun buddies and best friends, but she still couldn't explain it. But pushed the thought aside as she started to hear the tune of her song Steven wrote.

She smiled as she then started to hum the tune, continuing her gaze at the sunrise.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steven's alarm clock blared out its annoying tone as usual to wake the hybrid child. He groaned as he hit the 'snooze' button and stirred as he tried to fall back asleep. But alas, he couldn't, since the horrible taste of his own breath lingered in his mouth. Steven, for the first time in a while, got up and stretched his arms out as he yawned, smacking his lips in an attempt to stop the taste of his breath from lingering in his mouth.

Steven hadn't really changed from the past month, only that his right eye was now covered by a black eyepatch given to him by Peridot to replace the white eyepatch that was given to him when White Diamond burst it. He had grown a little taller and his hair a little longer, but he still looked like the same Steven we all know and love.

"My, my, Steven." Pearl stated. "For the first time, you've managed to wake yourself up this time."

"Morning Pearl." Steven spoke, a slight grogginess in his voice.

"I made you breakfast." Pearl said, placing down a plate of what she had cooked for him. "Just the way you like it."

"Thanks Pearl." Steven thanked, getting up from his bed and slowly walking to the countertop and sitting on his chair. He then picked up his knife and fork and looked at the food on his plate. He poked around at the strawberries on his pancakes as his eyes showed visible tiredness. For the past few days, Steven had been staying up awake later than his usual set bedtime by Pearl. Steven had suggested for her to just drop it, but she refused due to her obsession with Steven going to bed at a proper time.

Pearl noticed this and walked around from the kitchen and towards Steven, placing a hand on his shoulder as she rubbed his back. "Are you alright, Steven?"

Steven turned to Pearl, his face still looking tired and groggy. "What..?"

Pearl sighed as she rolled her eyes. "Steven, you really need to stop going to bed so late. I'm really worried about you."

"I will, I will... Trust me..." Steven said, almost drifting off to sleep as his head drooped and his eyes slowly closed.

"Steven!" Pearl snapped, snapping her fingers. "You almost drifted off to sleep there! Are you really not going to sleep at the proper times?"

Steven sighed. "What's the point..? I still feel miserable..."

"Steven, you can always talk to us..." Pearl spoke, stroking his face. "We're really worried about you. I know you're still sad about Connie, but sometime you're gonna have to-"

And all of a sudden, Steven slammed his hand onto the counter, startling Pearl. "SHE WAS MY FRIEND! SHE DIDN'T DESERVE TO DIE! IF YOU JUST LET ME GET CLOSER TO HER, I COULD HAVE SAVED HER!!"

Pearl covered her mouth at his outburst, as he then saw tears start to form in his eye. "I still miss her... S-She was my jam bud... We were s-supposed to do things together as a t-team... A-And now that she's g-gone, I-I just don't f-feel the same anymore..."

Steven then burst into tears as he covered his eye. Pearl then took Steven into a hug as he cried into her shoulder. She took out her hand and rubbed her baby's back in an attempt to comfort him. "Shhh... It's okay, Steven..."

As the pale gem embraced the hybrid child as he cried, Garnet's door opened as she walked into the house, only to see the sight of Pearl and Steven embracing each other, a thing that hadn't happened in a while. Pearl then noticed Garnet looking at them and mouthed to her "It's about Connie again..."

Garnet mouthed back, "I'll handle this."

Pearl nodded and separated herself from Steven as she then walked towards her room. Then, Steven called out to her. "Hey, where are you going?"

"Just to my room. I won't be long." Pearl replied, opening her door and entering her room, the door closing behind her.

Steven then looked to then see Garnet standing before him. The fusion kneeled down to his height and placed a hand on his face. "I know you're still upset about Connie, but you can't just hide yourself away in this house forever."

"B-But.." Steven stuttered.

"No buts." Garnet spoke back. "Maybe you should do something to try and get your mind off of her. How about you go visit Lapis and Peridot? They haven't seen you in a while."

Steven wiped his eye and gave a feint smile to the married fusion. "Okay... Let me just get changed and eat my breakfast first."

Garnet nodded. He then went back up to the counter and ate his breakfast, which was a little cold but Steven didn't seem to mind. Once he was done, he went into the bathroom and took a quick shower. He did stink a little bit due to the time he spent in bed but a wash should do the trick. Once he was done in the shower, he grabbed a towel, dried himself off and got changed in his usual attire of his red and yellow star shirt, jeans and salmon-pink flip-flops.

Once fully changed, he walked out of the bathroom and toward the front door. He looked back at Garnet, who simply nodded at him. But Steven was having second thoughts about her suggestion.

"What's wrong Steven?" Garnet asked. "Are you nervous?"

"N-Not really, but..." Steven replied. "I don't think I should-"

"You need this, Steven." Garnet interrupted. "You can't just hide away forever. Besides, Lapis and Peridot would love to see you again."

Steven looked back at the door, his hand still on the handle. Then he looked back at Garnet and then back at the door. He hesitantly opened the screen door and started to walk outside. He then turned back to Garnet.

"I-I'll see how this can help... Thanks Garnet..." Steven said.

Garnet nodded back. "No problem."

Steven nodded back to her and walked towards the steps, the screen door shutting behind him. As he walked down the stairs, a shadow loomed over him as he then looked up to see Blue Diamond smiling down at him.

"Morning Steven!" Blue spoke, waving down to the diamond hybrid.

"Oh, hey Blue..." Steven greeted back, giving a shy wave.

"It's been a while since you've been out here. What brings you to the outside?" Blue asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Oh, I'm just gonna... Visit Lapis and Peridot." Steven replied. "Y'know, since I've not seen them much lately."

Blue nodded and let Steven move on. Steven waved a shy wave once more before continuing his walk towards the barn. He stopped when he saw Lapis watching the sunrise and humming the song he made for her. He let out a small smile since he always treasured the song to their long friendship together.

And then, Lapis finished her humming and noticed Steven looking at her, still with a short, but noticeable smile. She gasped as she ran up to him and hugged the diamond hybrid. "Steven! Where have you been?"

"Still in the same place I was in for the past week. But Garnet suggested for me to go out of the house so I decided to just come visit you guys." Steven responded to Lapis' question.

"Well I'm glad to hear that." Lapis said. "Besides, it's been a while since we've seen you."

She then turned her head towards the door of the barn, looking at Peridot as she continued to build her meep morp. "Hey Peridot! Steven's here!"

The sound of clattering and banging erupted from the barn as the small green gem ran out the barn and embraced Steven in a tightening hug. Sure she had a small size, but darn she could squeeze hard. "Steven! I am so glad you're here! It's been a lot of earth rotation's since we've seen you out here."

"Garnet suggested I should get out the house for a while so I decided to come visit you." Steven responded, hugging back the green gem. Sure, he was still feeling a little depressed, but she couldn't resist hugging these two gems he's known over the course of time. And deciding to not feel left out, Lapis joined in the hug with the hybrid and the green dorito gem.

And as she hugged him, she felt those feelings again. She felt warm, and happy with him in her embrace. She almost wanted to pull him in a little tighter into her, but chose not to since she could felt herself blushing and that she was still a little confused about the feelings she feels around him.

The three separated from the hug and looked at each other. "So Steven, what would you like to do?"

"Well.... I did just kinda wake up, but I don't really know." Steven responded. "Any suggestions, guys?"

"Well, I just got some new tapes of Season 6 of Camp Pining Hearts and I was thinking that me, you and Lapis could watch a few tapes of it." Peridot stated. "You two in?"

"Sure, I guess it could be fun." Lapis replied.

"I'd be delighted to." Steven also replied

Peridot smiled as she lead the two to the TV, which was still the same TV they've always had and was now in a repaired state. The three sat down in front of it, with Steven sat next to Lapis and her next to Peridot. The green gem then grabbed one of the tapes, slided it into the VCR port in the TV, and the programme came on as normally.

"Previously, on Camp Pining Hearts.."

And as the things from the previous season were recapping what had happened, Lapis looked over at Steven. She had forgotten how different he looked with height, hair and also the new black eyepatch on the eye that got removed by a White Diamond. Lapis still felt anger toward White and cursed her under her breath for doing it to Steven. But the anger was a protective anger, since Lapis was quite protective of Steven as she fused with Jasper to save him and his family, which she still shudders every time she thinks of her captivity inside Malachite as she kept hold of Jasper so she couldn't take control and probably hurt Steven.

Lapis then had the temptation to hold onto Steven's hand because of this thought. She slowly reached her blue hand over to his left hand and was about to take it until Steven looked at her. She quickly retracted her hand as she then turned her attention back to the show.

Steven tilted his head to the side as he questioned why Lapis looked a bit nervous while reaching out her hand to him. But he just shrugged and continued to watch the show with his two best gem friends.

But Lapis still was confused about the new feelings she was feeling. What do they mean? Is this what she meant by 'those funny feelings I feel when I'm around you' when she sung those lyrics when she sung to Steven when the two were on the Moon Base? But Lapis would have to find out another time, since they were getting to the actual show after the long as heck recap.

But little did she know, that those feelings for Steven would soon blossom into something surprising.


	5. Coffee With Dr. Maheswaran

The next day...

After watching some Camp Pining Hearts with Lapis and Peridot, he headed home as he said goodbye to his favourite green and blue gems. And after a small dinner, he then got a call from Doctor and Mr Maheswaran. They had asked if they wanted to go out for a drink at the local café since Priyanka had noticed that over the past month, Steven hadn't been eating much, which made her worry. Steven hesitated to accept, but did anyway since he thought that Garnet would probably want him to get out the house a little more. So after accepting, they arranged a time and the hybrid went to sleep.

But during his sleep, he seemed to have a dream about meeting another hybrid in the Big Donut and that soon evolved into finding more hybrids for them to join a team that Steven himself would lead. There was a Cinnabar hybrid, a Star Sapphire hybrid, a Jade hybrid, a Tanzanite hybrid and even a Rose Quartz/Ruby fusion hybrid. It intrigued Steven at the idea of there being more gem hybrids in the world but since it was a dream, he assumed it would probably be something that his mind just randomly comprehends in his head. Besides, he already knew there was another hybrid, and that was Jon. But could there be more than just him and Jon as hybrids in the world? Well, who knows?

Anyway, the next morning came and Steven's alarm blared out it's annoying tone as usual. But this time, he shut it off and actually managed to get himself up. Sure, he still felt tired, but if he wasn't up and out of bed, Amethyst would probably try to wake him by either jumping on him or pranking him. And since he didn't want that, Steven eventually caved in and got up to avoid such a thing happening to him.

And as he walked up to the kitchen, he spotted a note on the fridge. It was written in cursive, which meant that Pearl must have written it. It was a little hard to make out what it said, but as he got a closer look at the note, he could understand it better.

Steven,   
We've had to leave early for a mission. The diamonds have come with us too. Garnet also told me to remind you that you're meeting Connie's parents at Ocean Café at 1:30pm. Don't forget to make yourself something to eat for breakfast.

Love, Pearl ❤️.

Steven gave a small smile. Sure, he was still depressed from Connie death, but just the reminder of how much Pearl acted like a mother to him most of the time was enough to crack a smile in the depressed hybrid. He put the note aside and grabbed a bowl from the overhead cupboard above the refrigerator. He poured himself a bowl of cereal and ate it before going into the shower to freshen up.

While in the shower, he was thinking of how Lapis was around him. And also how she was reaching her hand out to hold onto his. Steven didn't know if she wanted to hold his hand due to the amount of time the two of them had seen each other, or something else entirely. Steven just shrugged this off and went back to washing himself.

Once done, he got dry, polished his gem, brushed his teeth and got dressed in his usual attire. He then walked out of the bathroom and sat on the couch. Since he wouldn't need to go to Ocean Café until 1:30 in the afternoon, he needed something to pass the time. It was currently 8:45am right now, so what could he do?

He then looked at his bookcase, maybe he could read a book? He looked at the spines of the books as he read to himself the titles.

Unsighted, Dreamcatcher, Where Sides Change, The Maze Runner, Wonder, Doe.

Wait. He had read these books already. They were good reads to him. Re-reading them might be fun, but only for a while until he would eventually get bored of reading the same thing twice. He then headed upstairs to his attic and looked at the collection of video games he had. Most of them classic Nintendo 64 and GameCube titles along with a few unique games for the platforms. 

He scrolled across his collection and picked out a random game from it. He pulled it out of his shelf behind his TV and looked at what he had picked.

Jet Force Gemini

Ah, one of the classic N64 titles from famous game company Rare. But he had already played this game, and completed it too. But not before trying to defeat one of the bosses multiple times since he kept dying due to its power arc beam. So Steven placed the cartridge back on the shelf. He then pulled out another one.

Superman 64

Steven scoffed at the cartridge. This was widely regarded as one of the worst games ever made. "Why do I still have this?"

He placed it back. And then picked out another cartridge.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

Yes. This was the perfect one to play to pass the time. He bought the game a long time ago from a yard sale but never played it since he was too distracted by other games in his collection like Golf Quest Mini and Perfect Dark. And since he was a fan of these types of games, Steven nodded and walked over to his console. He plugged in one of the controllers and inserted the cartridge.

He turned on his TV and turned on the console. Immediately, the game started up and Steven started a new file in the game, since the game didn't have any previous save files on it at all. He named his character Steven and played the game. Sure the graphics were nothing compared to what was on his GameCube or any modern day console today, but they sure were great games back then.

And after getting through the tutorial/prologue level, he finally got into the actual game. At this point in the game, he wasn't Link in human terms, but as something called a Deku Scrub. And he only had three in-game days to stop the moon from crashing into Termina, the games fictional setting.

While Steven was running around the town trying to figure out where he was supposed to go, he was too focused into his game to hear the screen door open, where Lapis stepped in and quietly walked upstairs to Steven's room. She then stood and watched as the hybrid continued to play his game while not noticing he was being watched. Lapis had come to visit him since she really wanted to make up for all the lost time together after she left Earth a few months back. She really missed Steven during her time in space, and wanted to make up for it.

Then, in a nervous tone, she spoke up. "Hey Steven..."

This caused Steven to jump at the sudden mention of his name. He then paused the game and turned around to see Lapis, who was giving an awkward smile as she looked down at him. "Lapis! You scared me a little there."

"Sorry." Lapis nervously chuckled. "Anyway, what are you doing?"

"I'm just playing a game to pass the time until I have to leave to meet Connie's parents." Steven answered. "Do you wanna watch me?"

"Sure." Lapis accepted, walking around him and sitting to the left of him. Steven nodded and unpaused the game. Lapis then watched as he continued to walk around and perform actions that helped him progress in the game. He got the passcode into the Bomber's Clan, collected a Moon Tear, and even bought a deed for a launch pad outside the clock tower. Then when the third day hit, he launched up toward the clock tower and confronted the games antagonist: Skull Kid.

"So what's this guys problem?" Lapis asked, confused at what was going on in the game.

"I think that Skull Kid just is one of those villains that want to destroy the world by crashing the moon into the ground. I've just started playing this game." Steven briefly explained.

Lapis let out a simple "Hmm." Then continued to watch Steven as he continued the game. Soon enough, he got back the Ocarina of Time, reversed back to the first day and met the Mask Salesman that managed to turn him back into a human with a simple song. Now he had obtained a Deku Scrub mask.

And as Steven made his way to the first temple, Lapis looked at the star child. And then started to feel those same feelings from yesterday, the feeling of warmth. And also another urge to hold one of his hands. Lapis then reached out her hand slowly toward one of the hands that was moving the control stick, but stopped midway. She retracted her hand and slowly wrapped it around Steven, making him jump.

He turned away from his game, looking at Lapis as she shyly smiled at him. Steven chuckled and went back to playing the game. Eventually, he finally reached the first temple and was now trying to complete a few puzzles in the temple.

"So now what are you doing?" Lapis asked.

"Well, in order to reach the boss of this stage, I need to complete a few puzzles until I can grab a boss key so I can head to the boss and defeat it." Steven replied.

"What's a boss?" She then asked.

"Its basically the enemy you have to defeat in order to progress the game. Once I defeat the boss of this temple, I have completed this temple and it's onto the next one." Steven then answered.

Then, Steven had reached a monster room. A few enemies spawned in the room and Steven's character then unsheathed their sword. "Hey Lapis?"

Lapis turned to Steven, who was holding out his controller to her. "Do you want to have a try?"

"Sure." Lapis said, taking hold of the awkwardly shaped controller. It had three grips and the control stick was in the middle while the buttons were on the right side of the controller. She looked at it, confused as she tried to hold the controller.

Steven then helped her put her hands into the correct position. "Yeah, the controller is kinda awkward. But this is the way you hold it."

Lapis nodded and allowed Steven to explain how it worked. "Okay, that white stick in the middle moves your character around. The A button does a roll while the B button swings the sword. The left shoulder button aims onto a enemy. Try it!"

Lapis moved her left thumb onto the control stick and moved it to the side. She looked at the screen to see that her character had moved to the side. She then held the left shoulder button and saw that it had aimed onto an enemy. She then moved towards it and pressed the B button to swing the sword. And as she expected, the enemy got hit and took some damage. Lapis smiled as she mashed the B button to keep attacking the enemy, eventually defeating it.

"Steven! I did it!" Lapis cheered.

"You did good for your first video game enemy." Steven stated.

Lapis blushed, grateful for the complement by her beach summer fun buddy. "Aw, thanks."

Steven nodded as she let Lapis finish off the other enemy in the room. Eventually, that was defeated and the room was unlocked, allowing for the character to leave the room. Lapis handed back the controller to Steven and let him continue his game.

The two continued to play for another hour, with Steven managing to defeat the boss in the temple and collect its head. He was about to move onto the next one, until his phone buzzed. He paused his game and grabbed his phone to see what it was. It was a text from Dr. Maheswaran.

Dr. Maheswaran: We're making our way to Ocean Café. See you there.

Steven put his phone down, made his way to a save point and saved his game. He then switched off his game console and took out the cartridge before placing it back onto his shelf. Lapis turned to him and watched as he grabbed his phone and his red hoodie, since it was quite chilly today.

"Where are you going?" Lapis asked him.

"I'm going to meet Connie's parents for a drink." Steven responded, slipping on his hoodie and some white sneakers instead of his salmon-pink flip flops. "I'll be back though."

"Oh. Okay then." Lapis said, a slight sad tone in her voice as she finished her response.

Steven noticed this and put a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay Lapis. I won't be gone long. Once I'm back we can probably hang out if you want."

Lapis nodded. "Alright. See you later, Steven."

Steven waved to her and walked out the screen door and toward the bus stop, where he caught the next bus to Ocean Town and made his way to meet the Maheswarans ever since their daughter died. He was a little hesitant to see them again, since last time he saw them, they broke down over the news of their daughter's death.

Eventually, the bus reached Ocean Town and Steven thanked the bus driver before getting off. He then made his short walk toward Ocean Café, where he saw Dr. Maheswaran sitting at a table outside the main building. She had a cup of black coffee and a small piece of a granola square in front of her. What surprised Steven is that Doug was absent.

Steven sat at the table, where Priyanka then noticed him. "Hello Steven."

"Hey Dr. Maheswaran." Steven greeted. "Where's your husband?"

"He was supposed to come, but his schedule filled up quickly so he couldn't come." Priyanka replied.

"It's fine." Steven reassured.

"I've got a hot chocolate ordered for you." Priyanka said. "I wasn't sure what you drink at these sorts of places, so I ordered you that."

"Thanks Dr. Maheswaran." Steven thanked.

The two were silent for a bit, with a Priyanka taking a few sips of her coffee and Steven just rubbing his hands together to warm them as today was a little chilly. Eventually, Steven's drink arrived. He took the drink, thanked the waitress and took just a sip of it.

Then, Priyanka decided to start a conversation. "So, how have you been since.... Well, you know?"

"I've been better." Steven responded, sighing afterwards. "I'm still a little depressed from what happened."

"And so am I." Priyanka said. "It's really quiet now. I'm used to seeing Connie on the couch reading one of her fantasy books, but now? It... It just feels empty.."

"When you love your offspring enough, you always remember that they'll always be there." Steven remarked. "But when they're gone, it's hard to remember that they're gone."

"I guess you could say that." Priyanka spoke, taking another sip of her coffee while Steven took one from his hot chocolate.

"Doug's more quiet than he usually is. I barely even see him much anymore. It's not just because of his job, I think this might be because of what happened." Priyanka stated.

"Maybe he's just trying to find a way to cope with it?" Steven questioned.

"Well... That could be the case, but I don't know. I just hope he isn't doing what I think he's doing." Priyanka responded, her face drooping after the last part.

"Like what?" Steven asked.

Priyanka looked away from Steven, as if she was hesitating to even say it. She took one more sip of coffee and took in a breather before looking back at the hybrid. "Steven.... I think he might be blaming himself for what happened. I know I didn't, but from my knowledge as a doctor, I've had patients that have blamed themselves for certain things that aren't that similar to what happened."

Steven gasped. "A-Are you implying that..."

"Yes..." Priyanka whispered. "I think Doug might be self-harming himself..."

Steven's expression dropped after hearing those words. 'Self-harm'. He knew the word was not a good sign for people who were depressed. He had heard about it in a few stories he read in books or online. He still couldn't believe that people would do that.

"I really hope he isn't doing such a thing. I love my husband and I don't want to see him doing such a thing." Priyanka added. "I just... Why would he even result in doing such a horrible-"

But just as she was about to finish her sentence, a loud crash filled the air as Priyanka and Steven turned to the source of the sound. The two got up and ran toward the crash site, where they saw a small white pod with smoke pouring out some of the orifices of it. A group of people were moving toward it but were warded away by Priyanka and Steven.

"Stay back everyone!" Priyanka ordered.

Steven walked toward the pod and noticed that there was a door on it. He assumed it was some sort of escape pod. It was a clear white with a few damaged panels with smoke pouring out of them and at the bottom of the pod being a thruster tube.

Steven then took hold of the door and tugged on it. The door flew off the pod and a cloud of steam flew out of the inside of it. Steven cleared away the steam with his hand, only to gasp as he recognised the two slim but familiarly coloured gems inside the escape pod. Priyanka came to see what Steven had found, and she too was surprised to see who was inside.

"Blue and Yellow Pearl?" Steven spoke.


	6. The Pearls

Steven looked at the blue and yellow Pearls as they crawled out of the crashed escape pod, questioning why they were here. Did they come to find their diamonds? Are they in trouble or something? Who knew, Steven would have to ask them.

Once the two pearls were out of the pod, Yellow Pearl dusted herself off and grabbed onto Steven, her face full of panic. "White Diamond has gone crazy!"

"Woah! Hold your horses!" Steven cried, taking hold of her arms and lowering them to her sides. "I need to ask you what you're doing here. Are you looking for Yellow Diamond?"

"Part of the reason me and Blue Pearl are here is one part of it, the other part is what I just told you." Yellow Pearl replied, in her usual tone as usual but with a slight bit of fright injected into it. "But I'm being serious! White's out of control!"

"Wait. What happened?" Steven asked. "What do you mean White Diamond is out of control?"

Blue Pearl stepped up, her hair covering her eyes of course but Steven could tell she was scared due to how she was shaking. "White Diamond called upon us and when we got to her, she was smashing up her control room. It was like it wasn't even her..."

__________________________________________________________  
Blue and Yellow Pearl finally reached the top of The Shard and stepped into White's control room with her Pearl alongside them. The two were quite afraid of White Pearl, since she didn't really talk or move her body much. And the fact she had a cracked eye made their fear increase.

White Pearl opened the doors, where the sight of White Diamond smashing her control room up was then sighted. She was screaming as she punched her walls and kicked away her control panels as her face was contorted in a furious expression. Yellow and Blue Pearl gulped as they walked toward the angry Paragon to talk to them.

"Um... My Diamond?" Yellow asked. "Is something the matter? You called upon us?"

White turned around, showing her furious expression. "I'll tell you the matter you pearl! My Starlight just... Just... ABANDONED ME!!"

White threw another punch, which smashed a screen before she breathed out heavy breaths and her fists clenched. "I just got her back, and then what happens? She leaves me again!! And all with the assistance of my glorious experiment!"

"M-My Diamond, I'm sure it'll be easy to recapture them. They surely must've not left yet.." Yellow stuttered, her fear obvious in her voice.

"They already left! 3 Earth rotations ago!" White screamed. "How am I going to find my Starlight who drove a ship that hasn't been fitted with a repaired tracking device!?"

White picked up another control panel and threw it toward the wall, destroying the panel even further as it hit the wall and then the ground. "It'll be almost impossible to find her!!"

She then slammed her hands onto her throne, taking in a breather to cool herself down from her rage. She stood up and clenched her fists once more. "And what's worse is that your respective diamonds have betrayed me for her. So for that, I'm going to have to do something about you..."

The two pearls stepped back. They knew what White was capable of. And they knew one of her punishments was to convert gems and leave them looking like her Pearl. And they surely didn't want to end up like what the finishing results looked like. They had seen a few, and under their loyalty towards their diamond, shuddered at what they had seen.

White then turned to them and smirked, holding her hand out and summoning a white ball of electricity. "I'm going to have to shatter you..."

Yellow and Blue Pearl looked at each other in fear and then back at White, who was stomping their way toward them. And without warning, Yellow grabbed Blue Pearl's hand and rushed them both out of the control room. White tried to zap the two gems, but missed and hit the wall. She growled and pulled out her backup screen.

She then sent out an announcement to her court. "Find those two pearls who belong to the traitor diamonds and shatter them!"

Back with the Pearls, they were running for their lives. Red alarms blared throughout the tower as they both heard White's troops coming towards them. They ran a bit faster and eventually came across a few of them. They tried to swing an attack at them, but Yellow and Blue Pearl managed to evade them by jumping over them through wall running and jumping to the other side.

"We need to find the escape pods!" Yellow Pearl said. "I might know where our diamonds must've gone!"

Blue Pearl nodded. The two Pearls kept running throughout the tower and downward to the escape pods. They eventually reached some warp pads and warped out of the tower, right before some guards could catch them and send them off on a painful note.

After they reached wherever the warp pad took them, they ran off and eventually found the escape pods. Yellow and Blue Pearl ran toward one of them and inputted a release code, which would detach the docking mechanism on the pod. Once the code was put in, the pod door opened and the two Pearls crawled inside.

Yellow Pearl shut the pod door and activated the launch process. It was quick, just before some guards could get them out, the pod launched out of the station and out into space. The two were now out in space and heading toward where their diamonds were last seen to be going.

___________________________________________________________  
"So we flew across the galaxy and eventually reached here. However, our pod crashed due to how fast we were falling into the atmosphere." Yellow Pearl finished. "Thankfully we landed in-tact."

"Wow. You managed to survive and escape from White Diamond?" Steven asked.

"Yes. Thanks to my quick thinking and whatnot." Yellow Pearl replied. "However, I'm afraid that White may find us sooner or later. Once you tick her off, it's not long till escaped gems like us get shattered."

"Or worse. Corrupted." Blue Pearl added.

"Dang." Steven stated.

"But now that's explained, do you know where our diamonds are?" Yellow Pearl then asked.

"I can take you to them." Steven said. "They're currently at the temple."

"The... Temple?" Blue Pearl questioned.

"It's a place where I live. C'mon, I can lead you two there." Steven spoke, holding his hand out.

Blue Pearl looked at his hand and took it. Yellow Pearl then took Blue Pearl's hands and the three started to make their way toward the Temple. Then, Priyanka called out to him.

"Are you sure you'll be okay with this?" She yelled.

"Yes, Dr. Maheswaran!" Steven replied. "I'll be fine!"

Priyanka replied with a nod. The three then made their way to the Crystal Temple.

A few minutes later...

"Yo, P-Dot!" Amethyst called out, standing in front of the barn door.

She was then met with the sound of clattering and footsteps that then stopped once she heard the sound of Peridot unlocking the door and pulling it open. The door revealed Peridot in her new Crystal Gem uniform and holding her tablet, which was playing some sort of theory video on CPH.

"Yes, Amethyst?" Peridot asked.

"Have you seen Steven? I was wanting to go to the Big Donut with him." Amethyst answered.

"I think Lapis told me he went to go see Connie's parents." Peridot told Amethyst. "But there's no need to worry."

"Oh, well, thanks for telling me." Amethyst said.

"You're welcome." Peridot responded. "Hey, I think I'm getting good with this 'thanking' business."

Amethyst chuckled quietly. Then, Peridot gasped as she saw Steven come back with Blue and Yellow Pearl in tow. "Hey, there he is now!"

Amethyst turned around and saw Steven. But her eyes widened once she saw Yellow and Blue Pearl with him. Steven noticed the gasp and turned to Amethyst, who looked a little bit scared but shocked at the same time.

"Oh, Amethyst! They're not gonna hurt us! Don't worry!" Steven assured. "They're just here to find Yellow and Blue Diamond!"

"But what if they're spies for White? What if they were sent here to spy on us?!" Amethyst yelled out. She then summoned her whip and wrapped it around Steven before pulling him toward her and grasping onto him protectively.

"You're not taking away my brother again, you spies!" She said. "I may have lost him a few times, but not this time!"

Blue Pearl was mostly silent and didn't respond while Yellow Pearl just looked at Amethyst in disgust. After all, she was told that defects were abominations and that they should be shattered.

"We're not spies, defect!" Yellow Pearl yelled back. "We're trying to run away from White!"

"Did you just..." Amethyst whispered, dropping Steven and putting him to the side. "Call me a defect!?"

"Well, yes. Isn't that what you are? I mean look at you, you clearly stayed in the ground too long and overcooked. Why are you even still intact?" Yellow scoffed. "Defects like you should be-"

But just before she could finish her sentence, she was wrapped up in Amethyst's whip and then swung into the ground over and over again, sand billowing as Yellow Pearl hit the ground at a fast pace.

Then, after being swung into the ground continuously, she was then pulled toward Amethyst as sheer anger was on her face as Yellow Pearl looked at Amethyst in fear.

"Never. Call me. Defect. Again." Amethyst threatened. "You got that you snobby pearl?"

The scared Pearl shakily nodded, only for Amethyst to push her back onto the ground. Steven looked at his sister figure in disbelief as he walked up to her. "Amethyst... Was that really necessary?"

"You know I don't like being called defect..." Amethyst said, a small tear in her eye. She then walked back into the house, the screen door slamming closed and rattling the porch.

Just then, Yellow and Blue Diamond emerged from their palanquin's on the opposite side of the barn and looked unhappy. Like if Steven had interrupted their beauty sleep (if they were human of course).

"What's all the commotion about?" Yellow Diamond grunted. "I'm trying to get some-"

She then looked at her own Pearl in shock, Blue's expression being almost the same as Yellow's. "H-How did you get here?!"

"We escaped via an escape pod, my Diamonds." Yellow Pearl replied, bowing before her and giving the diamond salute. "However, I will warn you that White Diamond has gone crazy."

"What do you mean by that, my Pearl?" Blue Diamond asked.

"White Diamond is not happy that Pink Diamond escaped and she's probably now focusing on finding her." Blue Pearl answered. "We may be at risk of her finding us."

"We think the pod has a tracker, my Diamonds." Yellow Pearl added.

"If that's the case, has the tracker been destroyed?" Yellow Diamond asked, tilting her head to the side and putting a hand on her hip.

"I assume the tracker got destroyed in the pod when we crashed. I don't know for sure, but I think the tracker is disabled." Yellow Pearl responded.

"Well, I'd prefer you double check that the tracker is dead, Yellow's Pearl." Steven suggested. "Sometimes it doesn't take one crash to disable it."

"Wise thinking, human." Yellow Pearl said. "I shall head back to the crash site and check the tracker."

And so, Yellow Pearl rushed away from the Temple and back toward Ocean Town to check that the tracker was dead inside the damaged pod. The others watched her run until she wasn't visible anymore and turned back to each other. "I just hope that White hasn't found out where they landed..."

"I hope so too Steven." Blue Diamond spoke, looking up at the sky. "I sure hope not."

Back on Homeworld, in The Shard...

"My Diamond, I can't seem to find where they crashed!" White Pearl announced. "Maybe the tracker got destroyed when they crashed?"

"If that has happened, then there's little chance that I'll find my Starlight and bring her home!" White Diamond said, pacing around the still damaged control room. "This game of hers has gone far enough! She needs to fulfil her destiny!"

"When I finally decay... I need her to hold this planet together..." White then placed her hand on her forehead, where she felt her gem. "I've been building her up for this moment, but all she wants to do is to keep playing this silly game of hers. If no one holds Homeworld together, the whole gem race is at stake..."

"This whole planet is already falling apart... And I've not got long left..." White spoke. "I need to find her, or the consequences will be dire."

"I still haven't found anything, my Diamond." White Pearl then said.

"Keep looking!" White yelled. "And I also want every gem in my court tasked with the return of Pink Diamond!"

"Yes my Diamond." White Pearl said, moving away from the control panel she was working at and phasing through the wall.

White Diamond sighed as she sat back in her throne. She had a long way to go if she was to find her Starlight and bring her back to hold together Homeworld for White when she finally decays. It wasn't long. It wasn't long till the day came.


	7. The Beach

The next day, on Earth...

"So, now the pearls of Yellow and Blue Diamond are living here?" Jon asked, who had come over from his new house over where Connie used to live and decided to visit the gems and Steven for today. He was currently inside talking to the Diamonds, the Crystal Gems (except Steven, who was in the shower), Lapis and Peridot.

"Well, apparently so." Pearl answered. "But as long as they don't cause any trouble or harm for our Steven or us, they can stay."

"Our pearls don't do anything unless ordered to." Blue Diamond stated, who had shrunken down to fit inside the house along with Yellow. "But they're open with us, and we've made sure White Diamond hasn't commanded them to be spies for her."

"Even if that has been settled, she could still send gems over here to try and recapture him, right?" Jon asked.

"I'm certain about that, hybrid." Yellow Diamond replied. "Back when Pink was alive, she used to go missing from her room whenever White put her in there. She'd send gems to find and collect her, but she somehow managed to hide from them pretty successfully. But if it's in the case of what happened 30 Earth rotations ago, she'd very much send gems after Steven."

"Are there any we should be aware of?" Garnet asked.

"There's a few. But the one you want to be very aware of is her Moonstone." Yellow answered, taking out a device from her gem and activating it. There, it showed a gem with pale, white skin with long black hair, a full black jumpsuit with the White Diamond insignia and a pattern in the middle of it. And on her chest, was her gemstone.

"Moonstone's very smart. She's been the one who mostly finds Pink in those cases." Yellow Diamond explained. "She's an Elite gem to White, and has NEVER failed her. She's very well trained in combat and abilities, too. Her gem weapon is a shattering device that is like a piston, but with a spike on the end that impales the gem and shatters it. But most of the time, she uses an electro whip."

"Her main weapon sounds like my old Breaking Point design..." Bismuth whispered to herself, flinching at the memory of the fight she had with Steven in her forge. Now that she was officially reinstated as a Crystal Gem, she had sworn to never shatter again and build anything that could shatter a gem.

"Anyhow, that's the gem you all need to be aware of." Yellow Diamond finished, putting away the holographic device back in her gem. "If she appears, all of us are going to have a heck of a fight on our hands."

"I'll keep looking into my future vision for any chances she'll pop up." Garnet said. "Everyone else, keep an eye out in the world. We cannot let Steven be taken again. So I'm asking everyone to watch over and protect him until we can do something about White Diamond. Everyone in?"

The others agreed to it while Lapis sat quietly absorbing Garnet's words. She still didn't know the funny feelings she felt but she always wanted to protect the diamond hybrid, since he did free her from the mirror, gave her a second chance on Earth and let her become a Crystal Gem herself. She did one time protect Steven and his family when she fused with Jasper and trapped the both of them at the bottom of the ocean, but in the long run, it damaged Lapis' mental state for a while. She then moved a hand to her chest and pressed it down, the feelings of protectiveness surrounding her.

"I promise, Steven." Lapis mentally vowed. "I promise to protect you until the end. No matter what you say, I'll be there. You've done a lot for me, and now I think it's time I did something for you..."

But then, she was snapped out of her thoughts by Garnet, who called her out. "Lapis? You alright?"

Lapis jumped at the sudden voice, but looked up at Garnet and nodded. "Yeah. I'll protect him. Besides, we're really close and would protect each other with our lives."

"Point granted." Peridot remarked.

Then, the bathroom door opened, revealing Steven now in his usual attire and the same black eyepatch on his eye. His hair was little shiny, but it was probably due to him being in the shower. "Hey guys. What's up?"

"We were just discussing a few things." Garnet responded.

"About what?" Steven asked.

"Well, kid." Jon started. "It was about White Diamond and how she might send her gems to try and recapture you. So we've taken a vow to protect you from her. Since, hell, you probably don't want to end up back in her clutches again, now do you?"

Jon's eyes then went black. "And if she ever comes here, I'll rip her gem off and smash it into pieces!"

"Definitely not." Steven said, his voice a little sad sounding. Probably from the memory of what happen with him and White. "Anyway, are all of you busy today?"

"Well, I don't see any threats or missions coming up, so I'd say we're not busy." Garnet answered.

"Neither are us." Peridot and Lapis said.

"I don't have work today." Jon added.

"I guess the both of us are not particularly busy either. Since, well, we're not a part of Homeworld anymore." Blue Diamond said.

"Well, if all of you guys aren't busy, I was thinking that we could spend the day on the beach?" Steven suggested.

Lapis smiled. "Sounds like a great idea!"

"I agree." Amethyst added.

"Uh, Steven?" Yellow asked. "What do you mean about 'spend the day on the beach'? I know me and Blue are rather new to this Earth business, but what purpose does this have?"

"It's just to relax, Yellow." Steven spoke. "You get to sit in the sun and just.. Well, relax!"

"What is this ritual you call 'relax'?" Blue Diamond asked, her face looking a little confused, same going for Yellow.

"I'll show you when we head outside." Steven replied, he has a lot of things to explain about the Earth to the Diamonds. "Anyway, let's go guys!"

The gems nodded as they headed outside. Now, Steven was wearing his red swimming trunks and his salmon-pink flip flops. His shirt was off, revealing his Pink Diamond gem in his navel as he sat under a shade he set up a few yards from the house. Lapis was still wearing her dress as she sat underneath the shade with him since she wanted to be with Steven for today.

The others were scattered around the beach. Pearl and Bismuth was sitting off to the side, watching the beach while wearing their beach outfits they phased on, Blue and Yellow Diamond were sitting with their pearls in some sun-chairs Steven brought for them while they were wearing some beachwear Steven showed them and let them phase on, Amethyst, Garnet and Peridot were by the bottom of the beach, also wearing their beach outfits. Peridot and Amethyst were burying Garnet in the sand like a sand mermaid. Jon was by himself, lying on the beach wearing some sunglasses and some black swimming trunks as he sunbathed in the hot sun.

Lapis looked around the beach and then back at Steven, smiling at him. "You know, we haven't done a thing like this in a while."

"The other times we did this was when we were both alone, remember?" Steven said. "Besides, I wanted all the gems here for this since, well, it's been a while since I've done something like this since I found out my mom was really a space tyrant."

Lapis then remembered from last month, Steven telling her that his mom was Pink Diamond. She didn't say anything while he explained how this came to be and after he was done, she simply smiled at him and hugged him, saying that even if he was a diamond, she wouldn't judge him for it and still love him like she always did.

"Either way, I've missed this." Lapis remarked.

"I'm sure you have." Steven spoke, putting a hand on her shoulder, smiling at her. Even if he was still a little depressed, he could still smile with the ocean gem.

He then got up and walked to a cooler behind him. He opened it and grabbed two waffle cones from it before scooping some ice cream on the top of both of the cones. One of them red, the other being blue. He walked back to Lapis and handed her the blue ice cream cone.

She slowly took it and looked at it. "What is this?"

"It's ice cream." Steven replied. "I thought you might like to try some."

"But, gems don't really need to eat." Lapis said.

"I know, but I just had the idea of you trying some actual food for the first time. Besides, you might like it!" Steven responded, taking a lick of his ice cream cone. "Your's is bubblegum, mine is strawberry."

"Bubble.. gum?" Lapis questioned, looking at the ice cream cone. She had never really tried anything from Earth before so this would be an experience for her. Since Steven insisted on her trying it, she decided to do it. She looked at Steven as he continued to lick his strawberry ice cream. She wasn't quite sure since again, she never really needed organic matter since she was a gem and all of her energy came from her gemstone.

She eventually then stuck out her blue tongue and hesitantly licked the bubblegum-flavoured ice cream. Her eyes suddenly lit up as the sweet flavour drifted through her form. It was creamy, sweet and exotic. She gave it another lick and again smiled as the flavour hit her tongue again. It was very unexpected from something she first saw at first as just a weird experience, but eventually found out how great this sweet confection was.

Steven smiled at her. "See? I told you that you would love it."

"You're right! It actually does taste great!" Lapis exclaimed, giving the treat another lick.

Steven giggled as the two continued to consume their ice creams. Once the sweet, creamy confection was gone, Steven ate his and Lapis' waffle cones (since she insisted on him taking it since she didn't know what to do with it afterwards) and went over to Amethyst and Peridot, who were talking to each other while Garnet was out of her sand tomb and standing against the cliff.

"Hey guys!" Steven greeted.

"Oh, hey Ste-man. You wanna build some sand castles with me and Peri?" Amethyst asked.

"Sure!" Steven agreed, picking up the bucket and spade by the side of the purple and green gem and taking it to the lower part of the beach, near the ocean. He then scooped up some wet sand into the bucket and brought it back to the pair.

"So now what are we doing, beach summer fun buddy?" Lapis asked.

"We're building sandcastles." Steven responded. "You wanna help?"

"Alright, what can I do?" She again asked.

"You can help me assemble it. Here, take this bucket and fill it with some wet sand." He handed her a green bucket, which she took. "Once you've collected it, bring it back here."

"Alright then." Lapis said, walking down to the edge of the beach.

She then started to have flashbacks of back before all this happened, both Steven and Lapis would hang out on the beach and do things like swim in the sea, where Lapis would mess around with him with her hydrokinesis, and also build sandcastles, like what they were doing now. Lapis loved those moments, since those were the moments that built upon their relationship together, and also were the moments that started to fill her with her funny feelings for Steven.

She then scooped up the wet sand and walked back to the others. This cycle continued on for a little bit until the castle was done, which had been completed quite successfully as it was four sandcastles on the bottom, with the top one being held by the ones on the bottom. It's a surprise that it's still being held up, knowing how fragile wet sand is.

"I'd call this unqualified success!" Peridot stated.

"Right on, Peri-dactyl!" Amethyst cheered, slapping her hand over her shoulder, making the green gem flinch and yelp as it was quite sudden.

Just then, Blue and Yellow Diamond had come over to see what they had been doing. "What are you doing here, Steven?"

"Oh, we were just building some sandcastles." Steven answered.

Yellow tilted her head in confusion. "If that's supposed to be a castle, why is it made out of a very weak material? And even so, it's too small for you Steven. How is a diamond like you supposed to observe your colony from that?"

"No, it's just for fun!" Steven reassured. "It's not something to be taken seriously."

"Oh, my bad then. Just another human ritual we need to understand." Yellow Diamond said.

"You two could build one, it's easy!" Steven suggested "All you've got to do it get some wet sand, form it into something and there! You've got a sandcastle."

"That simple, huh?" Blue spoke. "I guess it can't be that hard."

Blue then walked away from the others, Yellow following behind. Steven, Lapis and the others watched as they started to build their own sandcastle. Yellow looked like she was struggling a little bit, while Blue was getting there, although a little confused about what it should look like.

Steven then turned to the others. "Hey, while they're doing that, why don't we go swim in the sea?"

The others agreed and they all went out into the ocean. Thankfully, they stayed in the shallow end since Pearl (and probably the Diamonds) would probably freak out if he went into the deep end and drowned. Lapis was splashed a few times by a sniggering Peridot, only for her to get wiped out by Lapis, who created a mini wave that splashed her.

She was submerged for a few seconds, until she rose up and spat out the water she almost swallowed. "Real funny, Lapis."

Steven, Amethyst and Lapis giggled at the green gem. "Sorry, I couldn't resist!"

"Well, then. Face my unbridled rage!" Peridot mischievously chuckled, splashing the three. The three chuckled until Peridot ceased her splash attack. They then continued to just swim around and even managed to play a game of chicken fight, with Steven and Amethyst fighting each other to knock either of them into the water while they sat upon Lapis' and Peridot's shoulders. Eventually, the both of them fell in and called it a fair fight.

The four left the water and sat back down on the beach. Blue had then called them over to look at both her's and Yellow's creations. As they came to look at Yellow Diamond's sandcastle, they just saw her just struggling to get something to hold with the 'wet' sand she was using. Eventually, she threw the sand to the side and frustratingly huffed. "Steven, this isn't easy! This Earth-grain structure just won't hold!"

"Yellow, I think it's because you were using dry sand instead of wet sand." Steven explained. "You see, wet sand can hold its structure more easily while with dry sand, it falls apart because it can't clump up into itself and form a tight seal."

"I guess that explains it." Yellow said, dusting herself off. "Now let's see how Blue's come al-"

She then stopped mid-sentence as she looked at the big structure Blue Diamond had created. It was quite the palace she had created, even having some exterior detail all done by her pearl. Blue was finishing off the top of the sand palace as she smiled at her creation once she was done.

She then noticed the others had come along and shrunk down to their size, since she had to grow in order to reach the higher parts of the sand palace. "What do you all think of mine? You were right Steven, this is easy!"

"I-I.." Yellow stuttered. "I have no words, Blue."

"I think it's clear that we found a winner!" Amethyst said.

The group chuckled before heading back to the beach, where the gems all continued to enjoy the day. Especially Lapis, who was happy just to see Steven out of the house and playing with her on the beach for once. But those feelings would soon start to further develop and surface as the next few days would pass by.


	8. A New Knight

A few days later...

Steven was writing in a journal he bought right after Connie died and he returned to Earth. Since Connie was no longer with him, he needed something else to occupy his time. So he started taking up writing in his journal about his experiences and what happened on Homeworld during the time he was captive by White Diamond. He hadn't had much time to write in it since he's been depriving himself most of the month from everyone.

But since everyone was on a mission today to scope out a corrupted gem Garnet had seen. Her and the Crystal Gems, including Lapis, Peridot and the Diamonds, went out to the Strawberry Battlefields to find it and deal with it. Steven didn't go however, since he told Garnet that he didn't really feel like going on a mission.

Steven then opened his journal, where he saw the last thing he wrote in it. It wasn't related to his experiences, it was related to what he had seen one night and just scribbled it onto the paper.

The words 'itsmyfault' were scribbled on the page everywhere. No blank spaces were present on the page as it was filled with the same sentence over and over again.

This was written the night he came home after he had a nightmare of a ghoulish-looking Connie blaming him for her death. Steven hated those dreams. But he couldn't help but cry every time he had them.

Connie was his best friend, almost like a sister to him. But now she was gone, Steven apparently had been harbouring guilt over her death, thinking it was all his fault. It was like the one time he harboured guilt over poofing Bismuth, Jasper becoming corrupted and throwing Eyeball out into space.

But knowing that was all in the past, he turned to a clean page and took hold of his pencil. He then proceeded to write into it. Today he was going to write about how he managed to escape from his mom's room on Homeworld.

"I'd had it. I didn't want to be in her presence anymore. She blew out my eye, tortured me through seeing those horrible visions of my gem family getting hurt, and being in this room with her pearl just watching me. It's creepy and I didn't want it anymore. Even after I tried to have a conversation with White Diamond to try and get along with her, it didn't work. She didn't want to talk about healing the corrupted gems on Earth or Earth at all. All she wanted to talk about was how my next colony would go. I just got angry and told her I wanted to go back to my room. That's when I decided I'd had it. I decided to make my escape into Homeworld to find my family. The Diamonds and the Crystals Gems were surely looking for me, so it was time to make my move."

Steven continued to write into the journal as he remembered how his escape plan worked to escape White. And also how Jon started his escape.

__________________________________________________________  
The doors to Pink's room opened, revealing White Pearl holding a smaller version of Pink Diamond's outfit she usually wore. White Pearl moved into the room, only to see that the room was empty. Steven wasn't in his chair, or anywhere in the room. White Pearl looked up at the ceiling, only to see the self same pink bubbles with gems in them that were already there.

"Pink Diamond?" White Pearl asked. "My Diamond requires your presence. I have also brought your new uniform. On my diamond's orders to give these to you and to change your current attire immediately."

But no response came. Only silence. White Pearl continued to hold that creepy smile she usually had while still holding the outfit in her left hand. White Pearl then looked around the room, wondering if she was up to her usual games.

"Pink?" White Pearl called out again. "Please come out now. White Diamond requires your presence immediately."

Still nothing. White Pearl then moved forward further into the room and moved to the open balcony in front of her. She slowly inched closer toward the balcony, thinking that Steven would be hiding on one side of the balcony in one of its blind spots. But again, there was no response from Steven. Then, once she was at the balcony, she looked down at the ground, where she saw many gems walking down the walkways of Homeworld on their usual routine.

She then turned around to walk back into the room, only to have her head slammed by a bright pink shield, causing White Pearl to drop to the floor. What is strange is that White Pearl didn't let out a grunt in pain or a reaction at all. She simply just flopped onto the ground as the shield hit her and threw her to the floor. Apparently, Steven was hiding behind one of the balcony doors that both opened inwards, making it the perfect hiding spot from White Pearl.

Steven then looked down at her, still holding the shield. He was feeling a little remorse for her since he didn't really like how Pearl's were treated as servants and she seemed like she was trapped in the masquerade White Diamond had put her in for eternity. But that wasn't the case. Sure, he was a sweetheart and would help anyone no matter how bad they were, he thought to himself that White Pearl would try and apprehend the hybrid once she got back up.

He then looked toward the door White Pearl had come through, seeing that it was still open and that his key to freedom was in his reach. With White Pearl still on the ground, emotionless as usual, Steven ran out of the room and into the corridors. He held his shield tight, ready to fight any guards that would try to apprehend him.

As he ran down the white corridor, he looked at the others rooms he passed by. He deducted that they were probably other rooms for the gems in Pink's court in this tower he was stuck in. As much as he'd like answers to what this tower's purpose is and why it had Pink's room in, he'd have to find out later as he needed to escape.

After a while, he spotted some guard gems talking to each other. Steven hid in the frame of one of the doors that lead to one of the rooms as he listened to their conversation.

"Why were we appointed these jobs?" One of the guard gems, a Turquoise, asked their partner, a Fire Opal.

"Because White Diamond said so." the Fire Opal answered. "She wants Pink to be well protected and made sure she stays in her room."

"Is there anymore guard gems coming?" the Turquoise then asked.

"They're on their way." the Fire Opal spoke. "Once we've got them up here, Pink surely can't escape through this path because we've got-"

But the Fire Opal's sentence was cut short as they were knocked down by a sudden shield throw to the head. The Turquoise quickly turned to Steven and summoned a electrified baton. However her weapon was knocked out of her hand when Steven slapped it out of her hand with his shield and took hold of it. He then smacked the Turquoise with it, causing them to poof. He did the same with the Fire Opal and poofed them too. He bubbled both gems and tucked away the shock baton in his pocket.

He then came to a crossroads, where in front of him lead to the other rooms in the tower, the corridor on his right lead to an elevator and the corridor on his left lead to some more rooms and the giant window the corridor finished with. He was about to turn right and walk down that path, but the elevator doors opened, revealing the backup that Fire Opal and Turquoise were talking about.

"Hey! Pink's trying to make an escape!" One of them called out.

"Stop them!" A buffer gem said, summoning her weapon and charging toward Steven.

He then took this opportunity to run in the opposite direction and toward the window. The gems behind him were firing stun shots at him, but most of them missed Steven as he continued to run toward the window. The buffer gem behind him was about to catch up until Steven reached the window. He then took a leap and jumped out of the window, shattering it as glass shards flew outwards and as Steven fell down the tall structure, only to use his powers to float down safely and land on the ground, where he then started to make a run for it, now starting his search for his family.

The backup gems looked down at where he jumped and watched as Steven ran down the walkways of the area surrounding the tower Steven was trapped in and out of their field of view.

"Oh my Diamonds, she's escaped!" The buff gem growled. 

"I'll put in a call to White to start a gemhunt for her." A thinner, purplish-blue gem spoke, taking her diamond communicator from her gem and twisting it to the left, causing a giant white screen to form.

Meanwhile at White's Tower, The Shard...

White Diamond was currently sitting on her throne, waiting for her Pearl to retrieve Steven from his room and to bring him here in his new outfit she made for him. Since she thought he was done with the Crystal Gems forever, she had some tailor gems make a new outfit for him based on his mother's design of her usual outfit back when she was still with them on Homeworld.

She then started to hear a ringing, only to find out it was someone on the Diamond line. She pressed the button on her holographic screen to answer it, where she was met with a stern, but slightly angry expression on her face.

"What is it, Tanzanite?" White Diamond asked.

"My diamond." Tanzanite performed the diamond salute. "Pink Diamond has escaped from her room and is now on the run. I am requesting you launch a gemhunt for Pink throughout Homeworld. Permission to do so?"

White angrily slammed her hand on her chair and clutched one of the arms tightly. "Permission granted, Tanzanite. But how did she manage to escape?! I thought I put those top-of-the-line guard gems on duty!"

"There is no sighting of Fire Opal or   
Turquoise." The Tanzanite responded. "We've also checked out her room, all we found was your Pearl on the floor with that outfit you made Pink."

"Tch!" White scoffed, then her expression changed to a crazed, happy look. Almost as if she was evilly smiling at what her Starlight was doing. "She may play her games, but my Starlight won't be on the run forever..."

"Tanzanite... Put every gem to work on finding her. And make sure that-"

Then, she then got another ringing on her screen. This time coming from inside The Shard. "Sorry Tanzanite. I have another call coming in. Just remember, bring her in. Alive."

The Tanzanite nodded as she shut off her call to White. She then tapped another button on her screen to answer the call coming from The Shard, revealing a panic-stricken Ruby gem while behind her, some gems were letting out war cries as they charged toward something off screen.

"What's going on down there?" White enquired.

"My diamond! A subject has escaped from containment!" The Ruby gem exclaimed. "They've gone mad and they're destroying our soldier gems as quickly as a Sapphire on a forbidden gem mineral!"

White sighed in annoyance. "First Pink Diamond escapes, now one of my experiments?!"

"Please! You need to do something before-" The Ruby spoke before a big black claw grasped the gem and squeezed it until it poofed. The claw then turned the screen toward them, revealing a tall, muscular, coal black skinned figure with silver veins around the body while its face had black eyes with white pupils and a giant mouth with more sharp teeth than any animal on Earth. They looked upon White with a threatening stare as they pulled up the screen toward their face.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the pig." Onyx spoke, darkly laughing afterward.

"Onyx. We meet again. Have you and your 'partner' teamed up again to escape together for the second time in a row?" White responded, folding her arms.

"Me and Jon are equal partners in this golden opportunity." Onyx replied. "Besides, we escaped once, and we can escape again. We have become more closer in our friendship and we're done with your shit. We are no longer your toys, White."

"You know, you're a cold blooded bastard. You know that?" Onyx then spoke. "Do you want to know what I would live for? I'd live to see you eat your BS regime. But I hope you leave enough room for my fist because I'm going to ram it into your stomach and break your god damn spine!"

Onyx then smashed the screen with his claw, cutting off the video feed to where Onyx was. White then tapped on her screen and a few seconds later, she was then broadcasting to the entirety of Homeworld.

"Pink Diamond and a subject of mine are loose. If you spot them around our Homeworld, report it to me ASAP." White spoke. "I don't want any failures. And if you spot any of those Crystal Gems running around with two diamonds, shatter them. They are traitors to our society and go against in what we believe."

She then shut off the broadcast and sat back in her throne, letting the gemhunt for Steven and Jon/Onyx begin.

_______________________________________________________  
Steven finished his entry as he placed his pencil down and clenched his fists. His hands got pretty cramped for writing that long but eventually managed to kill some of the pain from the cramping. He then closed his journal and put it under his bed, where presumably no one would find it.

And as if on cue, the warp pad activated, revealing the gems, including the Diamonds, after the warp stream died down and revealed their presence. They stepped off the warp pad and entered the house. Instantly, Blue Diamond went up to him and greeted him with a peck on his cheek, making the Pink Diamond hybrid jump in surprise.

"Hey Steven!" Blue greeted, smiling down at him.

"Oh, hey Blue." Steven replied. "How was the mission?"

"Not hard." Yellow answered, wiping her hands to rid of the dust on them. "My diamond abilities managed to get the job done quickly."

"What kind of gem was it?" Steven asked.

"Probably a Heliodor." Garnet responded. "But they're now safe in the temple."

Steven nodded his head and then headed to the kitchen to grab a drink. He took a glass from the cupboard and poured himself a glass of water. While he was drinking it, Yellow and Blue Diamond headed back outside to their abode while Amethyst and Garnet went into their rooms. Peridot and Lapis decided to head upstairs to Steven's room and talk with him.

They mostly talked about what happened in the mission, what the recent season of CPH has been like lately and also about life in general. Again, Lapis was feeling those warm and funny feelings. As if they wanted to tell her that she really admired Steven and wanted to be more than friends with him. They talked like this for half an hour until Pearl came up to him to ask him something.

"Steven?" Pearl asked. "Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah? What's it about?" Steven responded, turning toward her.

"Since I've not got much to do and I'm assuming you too. I was wondering if you'd be interested in starting your training again." Pearl spoke. "I know this might be sensitive to you because of what happened, but if White Diamond sent any gems or herself to come capture you again, you could be unprepared. What do you say?"

Steven kept her suggestion in his head. He wasn't quite sure about it. He was still trying to recover from when Connie died and he worried that if he went, he would trigger some bad memories and probably cause him to hurt himself in some case.

"I'm not really sure we should start now, Pearl." Steven replied. "I'm still in that process of recovering from you-know-what."

"Oh..." Pearl responded, a slight hint of disappointment in her voice.

"Steven!" Peridot exclaimed. "That White clod could strike anytime! You need to be prepared for this sort of stuff! Wouldn't it hurt to do just one training session and see what you think?"

Steven thought about this. He knew Homeworld was very unpredictable. I mean, look at the time a bunch of people got nearly abducted by an Aquamarine and a Topaz fusion and how the Diamonds came at a very unexpected time. That show enough evidence that Homeworld can be unpredictable? Anyway, Steven eventually finished his thought-process of Peridot's reassurance and said his response.

"Actually, Peridot's right." Steven said. "White could invade at anytime, so I think it's better to be prepared than never."

Pearl happily nodded. "Very well then. We'll step onto the warp pad and warp over to the ruins to start your training. I'm ready whenever you are."

Steven nodded back and went to get ready for his reboot to his training sessions. As he did this, Lapis went into her thoughts as some words she thought to herself a few days ago popped back into her head. It was when Garnet was telling everyone to protect Steven as White could strike anytime. She could vividly remember what popped into her head.

"I promise, Steven. I promise to protect you until the end. No matter what you say, I'll be there. You've done a lot for me, and now I think it's time I did something for you..."

And just like that, an idea bloomed into her head. She sat up from Steven's bed, where she was sitting on, and made her way to the warp pad where Pearl was currently standing. As she stepped onto the warp, Pearl looked at the ocean gem, a little confused about why she was standing with her.

Before Pearl could ask Lapis, Steven eventually got his hoodie and stepped onto the warp pad. Pearl then whisked away the three toward the Sky Arena, where their usual training sessions happened.

And within a second, they reached the ruined Sky Arena. Pearl and Steven entered the arena while Lapis sat and watched Steven train. They started off with a few warm-up moves, with Steven using his shield against a Holo Pearl as they thrusted it's sword into the shield as he deflected each hit. They eventually evolved into jogging on the spot, arm and leg stretches, and a few other warm-up moves.

Eventually, they got to the gist of the training sessions. Steven took a training sword from Pearl and went ahead with his first exercise: trying to take out as many Holo Pearls as he could in an allotted time. Lapis watched in amazement as he swung through Holo Pearl after Holo Pearl until the majority of them were gone. He then moved onto a few shield exercises, such examples being of using his shield as a frisbee to knock down a group of Holo Pearls like a row of dominos.

Lapis then took a moment to look away from Steven's training to look at her hands. She knew she didn't really have a main gem weapon, since her main weapon was mostly water since she could use hydrokinesis to fight against those who came against her in a quarrel. But if she learned how to use a different arrangement of weapons, maybe then she could be the best protector to Steven.

She then saw herself as a new knight for Steven. A person determined to keep those they care about safe from harm. Lapis cared so much for Steven. Heck, she fused with Jasper just so she couldn't hurt him or his family. Sure, she regrets it, but thinking about it now, it just came to show how much Lapis cared for this boy.

Eventually, she turned her attention back to the training Steven was doing, which had just looked like it had finished. Steven headed in his training sword to Pearl before heading to the warp pad to warp home. Steven offered her to come with him, but Lapis told him she wanted to talk to Pearl about something. Steven nodded and went on his way back home.

Lapis then made her way to the arena field, where Pearl was clearing up a few things before heading back to the Temple. Pearl noticed her presence and turned to her, holding a few more training swords. "I'm guessing you came here to watch Steven?"

"Not just that, Pearl." Lapis spoke.

"Well if you're here not just because you wanted to watch Steven train, why else would you be here?" Pearl asked, a little confused.

Lapis took in a deep breath before answering "Pearl... Can you train me in swordfighting?"

Pearl was taken in by surprise at Lapis' response. She wanted to swordfight? I know she didn't show much interest in it, but Pearl really wanted to know why the water gem wanted to learn to swordfight. "And why is that?"

"B-Because..." Lapis stuttered.

"I want to be his new knight..."


	9. The Way Of The Sword

Pearl looked at Lapis in surprise. She wanted to be Steven's new knight? She was both surprised and confused at why Lapis, a gem who could easily fight other gems with water, would want to learn how to swordfight? Pearl took in a breather to calm herself out of her surprised look and smiled at Lapis.

"Of course I could teach you how to swordfight." Pearl said. "Are you free now?"

"Y-Yeah, I am." Lapis answered. "I've not got much going on anyway since Peridot's probably distracting herself with some of her tapes."

"Very well then." Pearl spoke, pulling out a spare training sword out of her gem and handing it to Lapis. "Shall we begin the first lesson?"

Lapis nodded. Pearl then pulled out a training sword for her out of her gem and started to give Lapis a few warm-up moves. Mostly being how to hold her stance while in a sword fight. Lapis did struggle with it a few times but as Pearl helped her get it right, Lapis managed to get the hang of how to hold her stance.

The next thing the two gems did was learn how to parry and thrust. Pearl summoned up a holo-pearl and set it to Sword Training Level 1. Pearl demonstrated to Lapis how to do it through showing it against the holo-pearl, it went mostly smooth since Pearl had no distractions unlike the first time she tried to show it with Steven as he was still quite young and not that mature at 12-years-old. But as time went on, Steven has matured a whole lot ever since Homeworld first came to Earth and when he found out more secrets about the Gems and his mother.

After Pearl was done demonstrating, she let Lapis take on the Holo-Pearl. She kept it at the same mode it was at and started the exercise. Lapis surprisingly managed to get the hang of it, as she successfully managed to block the Holo-Pearl's thrusts and parries. She actually managed to land a hit on the Holo-Pearl, causing Lapis to pass Sword Training Level 1.

"I'm very impressed, Lapis." Pearl complemented. "You've seemed to picked up this quite easily than Connie did."

"I guess I'm a fast learner?" Lapis said, blushing at Pearl's comment on how quickly she managed to pick up the basics of swordfighting.

"Anyway, now onto the next lesson." Pearl stated.

She then showed Lapis a few more techniques on swordfighting, like how to get to grips on accuracy with a sword and a few more ways to make her parries and attacks more efficient on the battlefield. Lapis was told by Pearl to spar against her so Pearl could show her a bit easily.

And it actually was quite easy against Pearl as she managed to give Lapis instructions on what to do while they were sparing. And after a while, Lapis was really getting the hang of swordfighting. She knew how to parry, strike, thrust and some other basic attacks. Lapis felt pride in her non-existent heart, as she started to feel confidence that she would be able to become a new knight for Steven and to always protect the diamond hybrid.

After a few more spars and some new techniques learnt, Pearl and Lapis took a break for a few moments as Pearl decided to show the same scene she played to Steven and Connie about what the Gem War was like and how the Crystal Gems' fought to protect the Earth. Since Lapis was trapped in the mirror during the time of the Gem War, she looked at the scene in awe as she saw the battlefield filled with Homeworld gems and Crystal Gems fighting against each other and even seeing the same scene of Pearl throwing herself in front of Rose/Pink to protect her from being poofed and everyone from seeing who Rose Quartz really is.

"That's what the Gem War was like?" Lapis spoke.

"Yes. I know you were stuck in the mirror during the time this was going on, but what you see is the truth of what really happened in the Gem War." Pearl replied to Lapis' question. "Two sides, both fighting for different things. We may have won the war, but it had consequences."

"Don't all choices have consequences?" Lapis remarked. "Didn't Pink know what they were?"

"She knew a few, but she didn't know one of them would be the Diamonds corrupting the majority of us. Only me, Garnet and Pink were the only survivors of the Corruption Light." Pearl said, a tear in her eye at the memories at what the old CG's were like. She hoped that they could somehow find another way to heal the corruption of their former soldiers, since getting the Diamonds to heal the corruption wouldn't be an option now since White Diamond didn't seem interested in doing it since she locked up Steven in his mother's room and even burst out one of his eyes out.

"I didn't really hear much of the Gem War when I came to Earth for the first time when I used to be with Homeworld." Lapis said. "I only found out about it when I got apprehended in a battle and got poofed."

"I see." Pearl spoke. "Anyway, should we get back to training?"

Lapis nodded. "I guess so."

The two got up from the seats in the arena and back into the arena area of the ruins. There, the pale gem continued to teach the ocean gem more methods of how to swordfight. By now, Lapis was getting it. She managed to disarm Pearl a few times and even managed to beat one of the higher level Holo-Pearls. And when Lapis was given the task of dodging Holo-Pearl attacks while running toward it to strike it, she envisioned in her head that Steven was being held captive by a Homeworld gem, which managed to increase her focus and accuracy as she imagined it as her saving Steven.

Pearl was still surprised at the progress Lapis was making. She had only been in this training regime for only a few hours and she had somehow managed to get the basics of swordfighting down quicker than Connie did. Maybe it was because gems were more intelligent and quicker learners than humans, but Pearl shrugged it off and continued to watch her go.

Finally, Pearl decided to end the lesson with one final sparing match. Lapis had really shown her all in the spar, as she almost managed to disarm Pearl as the two were not holding back on each other. Lapis was almost thrown off guard but managed to block one of her attacks at one point. It seemed that Lapis had really stretched out her combat skills. First she could attack with only water and her own strength, now she could do both that and swordfight.

Eventually, the match ended in a draw as both of them decided to yield before the battle got out of hand. Lapis gave her training sword back to Pearl and spoke to each other before ending their long lesson.

"I'm very impressed with you, Lapis." Pearl said. "I think you've managed to surpass Connie from how you did out there."

"Thank you Pearl." Lapis responded.

"Also, that thing you said before the lesson, about you becoming Steven's new knight?" Pearl inquired. "I think from what I saw from you, you definitely have the strength and know-how to protect him."

"He's done so much for me, so I'd like to do something for him by protecting him the next time some Homeworld gems try to take him away from us." Lapis spoke.

Pearl lightly chuckled. "I know you care about Steven so much, but one thing just confuses me about the other reason why you wanted to learn how to swordfight.. I know you'd like to become his new knight since you really do value your relationship with him, but I believe there's another reason."

"So I'd like to ask you... Why did you really ask for me to train you?" Pearl asked.

Lapis' face blushed a dark blue. She hadn't told anyone that she was having feelings for Steven so she was worried about saying it. She knew her reason, but she almost doesn't want to tell it since she was worried that Pearl might tell Steven about it and somehow ruin her chances of being with Steven.

"B-Because..." Lapis stuttered. "Because I..."

Lapis then sighed in defeat, she knew it had to come out one way or another. "Because I think I love him. Ever since he saved me from the mirror and from Jasper, I've had these funny feelings I can't explain. Feelings of warmth, feelings of safeness every time I'm around him. I can't explain a few but I do know a few things about them, probably thanks to Peridot and her CPH tapes, but I can't really think why I have these feelings of love for Steven...."

Pearl gasped in surprise. "Oh Lapis... How long have they been inside you?"

"A long time.. Probably since I first moved into the barn after being freed from Malachite. I don't know what to think, Pearl. Do I actually have feelings for him?" Lapis answered.

"You probably do." A stern voice spoke out, surprising the two gems in the arena.

"Garnet?" Pearl inquired. "What are you doing here?"

"I overheard this conversation and I'd like to give some advice to Lapis here." Garnet replied, walking toward Lapis and placing a hand on her shoulder. "Lapis, how much do you care for Steven?"

"A lot... He's done so much for me, and he's always been there to protect me." Lapis responded. "I know Steven describes you as a fusion of love, but how do I know if I'm in love with Steven?"

"Those funny feelings you've been feeling are feelings of love." Garnet spoke. "Since you really care for Steven, you've grown these new feelings of warmth and safeness around him. That's love. Not just friendly love, but romantic love. Almost like the love Ruby and Sapphire hold."

"Lapis, I know you might be a little confused about what those feelings are, but with time, you will understand what they really mean when they begin to further develop. I've seen that you've hanged out with Steven a lot more since he came back, which is probably a sign of your love for him."

"How did you know that I was visiting Steven a bit more frequently?" Lapis asked.

"Future vision." Garnet smirked, a sparkle gleaming across her visor. "Anyway, if you want my advice on what to do next, try to show to Steven that you love him. It might be hard and that you may think he might be a bit busy for it, but have confidence and go for it. I'm sure Steven loves you the same way you do."

"But what if he doesn't? Can't you tell me if he does?" Lapis asked again.

"Love is unpredictable. Don't let love do all the talking, let love speak for itself. But I'm sure that even in the state Steven is in now, he probably loves you either way." Garnet replied. "As for your second part of your question, I can't tell. You'll just have to find out for yourself."

Lapis nodded. "Thanks Garnet."

"Now that's done and done, since you're now a sword fighter, I think we should get you a sword!" Pearl suggested. "I'm sure Bismuth would be happy to make you one."

"Can't I just use one of your swords?" Lapis enquired.

"Those are just training sabres." Pearl answered. "Besides, I'm sure you'd like one, right?"

Lapis shrugged her shoulders. "Eh, why not? Where's Bismuth anyway?"

"Presumably at her forge, let's head there now." Pearl said.

Lapis nodded. The two gems walked toward the warp pad while Garnet watched them walk away. Once they had warped away, Garnet soon followed as she made her way back to the Temple through the warp pad.

A few hours later, at the Barn...

Peridot was assembling a new meep morp of hers by grabbing an egg from an egg carton and then throwing it toward the wall, splattering it all over the wooden wall. "Yes! My new meep morp on the cycle of life and death is complete!"

Lapis then entered the barn as she slid the door open and walked inside. On her back was her new sword, which was currently strapped to her back and held inside a blue scabbard with a teardrop on the front of it. "Hey Peridot."

"Lapis! Where have you been the majority of today? I thought we were gonna get some more episodes of CPH done!" Peridot spoke.

"Sorry, I got a little distracted by something else." Lapis apologised. "But I'd like you to see this."

Peridot stopped her meep morping and walked toward Lapis, where she noticed that she was wearing a scabbard on her back. "Eh, Lapis? What's with the-"

And then suddenly, Lapis pulled out her sword from her scabbard, causing the green gem to yelp in surprise. "Don't hurt me, Lapis!"

"I'm not going to." Lapis chuckled at her barnmate's reaction. "I just wanted to show you my new sword Bismuth made for me."

"Oh." Peridot spoke, chuckling to herself afterward. "What was I thinking, you'd never hurt me! Anyway, let me see this newly acquired weapon of yours."

Peridot looked in awe at Lapis' new sword. It was almost like Rose's Sword, but a little shorter and a little thinner to accommodate with Lapis' height and grip. The blade of the sword was a light blue, like her skin and the hilt was a dark blue with a white spiral pattern on it. Peridot's eyes lit up in stars as she stared upon it.

"You like it?" Lapis asked her roommate.

"I have to say Lapis, it is a remarkable piece of weaponry. Why'd you have it made? Don't you already use water as a weapon?" Peridot responded.

"You may have not heard, but I'm becoming Steven's new knight after Connie passed away." Lapis answered. "And if there's no water in the area or I need to go up close and personal with a gem monster or a Homeworld gem, this sword I can call mine will deal with it flawlessly. Thankfully, it can't shatter gems, only destroy their forms."

"Impressive. Bismuth does make some very good weaponry." Peridot remarked. "I wonder when I'm gonna get a weapon..."

"Don't Peridots have gem weapons?" Lapis asked.

"I don't know if I have one. It'll take some research to find out." Peridot replied. "Anyway, you up for some CPH?"

Lapis nodded. "Always, Peridot."

And so the two friends made their way to the TV and popped in the latest tape of CPH and watched it together, Lapis smiling that she knew that she could protect Steven and that she could be able to develop her new love for the hybrid.


	10. Night Terror

Darkness.

It was the only thing Steven could see around him. He had just fallen asleep and was now dreaming. He'd expected something nice to dream about, maybe him spending some quality time with the gems or seeing Connie again in his dreams, but both those things didn't seem to happen based on what he was seeing.

Steven looked around the dark void around him, he was confused about what he was even seeing. What did any of this mean? Was it some sort of message for Steven? Who knew? It just could be another memory of his mother's that was trying to get to him.

But when Steven looked down at himself, he saw that he wasn't wearing his usual outfit or his yellow pyjamas that he wore when he went to sleep, he was wearing his mother's outfit. The one White Pearl was going to give to Steven to wear before he made his escape from the tower. He looked at the shoes, the puffy sleeves, the skirt that went along with it. But it didn't make any sense to the hybrid child. Why was he wearing this outfit? What purpose did it serve?

He then looked at his hands, only to find a dagger in one of them. His eyes shrank back as he looked at the weapon. Why was he carrying a dagger? It just still didn't make any sense to him. But that thought process was interrupted as Steven began to move forward on his own. He didn't even have control over his own action. He was just moving as if something was controlling him.

The void around him started to take shape. It shaped itself into the room Steven was trapped in when he and the gems first arrived at Homeworld. He was still holding the dagger and wearing his mother's outfit, but he was moving toward a figure that was standing by the door. He couldn't make out who it was, but as he got closer, he gasped as he realised he was moving toward Pearl. The Pearl he knew for most of his life.

As he continued to get closer, the arm that held the dagger started to raise upward, as if he was going to stab her. Steven gasped as he then tried to restrain it. But somehow, he couldn't. Pearl then noticed what he was doing but was late to react as the dagger stabbed her in her gem. The pearl on her forehead cracked into two and fell apart. She then fell to her knees and looked at Steven, tears in her eyes.

"Steven... Why?.." Pearl spoke through sobs. "Why w-would you s-shatter your mom?..."

She then poofed away as all that remained was her shattered gem. Steven then panicked internally as he kept on moving forward without control over his own body. It was like the outfit was making him do it and his mind was taken over by some sort of entity. He wanted to cry, since he had hurt the person he saw most as a mother to him, but couldn't. Something just wouldn't let him cry. It just continued moving him to the next area of interest.

He then was in the corridor, where Amethyst and Garnet were. He then saw his arm unwillingly raise up his dagger arm toward Amethyst and then he ran toward the small purple gem, where he tackled her and stabbed her multiple times through her gem on her chest. All that was left after that was multiple purple shards as Amethyst looked up at her little brother with tearful eyes.

"S-Ste-man...?" She choked out. But wasn't able to say anymore since she soon poofed and her shatter gem scattered on the floor. Steven wanted to scream. But nothing would come out. All he did was slowly turn to Garnet, who was shaking and also had her gauntlets summoned, as if she was ready to counter whatever attack the unwilling Steven would throw at her next.

Steven then just leaped at Garnet and stabbed her in her third eye through her visor, causing the fusion to split apart into Ruby and Sapphire. The two tried to re-fuse, but couldn't as Steven watched as his body held them down and stomped on their gems, poofing and shattering them. They weren't able to say anything before they got shattered.

Steven was crying to himself internally. He didn't know what was causing him to kill his own family, but he wanted it to stop. He screamed internally for whatever was making him do this to stop, but all he got was a evil chuckle before it made his body move on to a new scene.

The hallway of Pink's tower faded away as he was now on Earth. And he was outside the barn. Steven gasped in horror. He knew what was going to happen next. He then walked into the barn, where he saw Lapis cowering back to the wall in fear, tears in her eyes, as she clutched onto Peridot tightly, who looked genuinely afraid at who they were looking at.

Steven felt his heart hurt. He didn't want to hurt them either, especially Lapis. But again, he had no control as he stabbed Peridot in her gemstone with the dagger, her form poofing away and her gem falling to the floor shattered.

He wanted to make it stop as he saw his body grab onto Lapis and forced her onto the ground. He didn't want to hurt his Beach Summer Fun Buddy. The one he was very close to as he managed to free her from the mirror and did so much for her. But he had no control as he saw the ocean gem scream as her gem was shattered as it was torn out of her back and then crushed by his hands.

The scene changed again, where he then saw himself in White's throne room with Yellow and Blue Diamond standing beside her with their eyes completely white as White Diamond looked down at Steven and smiled down at him evilly. "Well done, my Starlight..."

He then looked down at the floor, only to find Connie dead with his shield jammed into her back as blood had splattered onto the pink surface. He wanted to thrown up at the sight of his dead friend. But again, he couldn't. He then looked at his hands, which were covered in blood while the dagger was still in his hand. Steven wanted to break down in tears at what he had just seen, but only internally as he then saw his body turn around to face a full body mirror.

He then gasped in horror once more as he saw his eyes were nothing but White Diamond's eyes. It seemed that White Diamond had taken control of his body in and killed all of his family in this dream that probably White had tampered with to mess with his head. His outfit was covered in blood but not as much as his hands.

Steven then looked at the dagger in his hands, the blade soaked in human blood. And then without warning, the controlled Steven raised up the dagger to his neck and slit the blade across his throat. Causing it to gush open with blood and for Steven to fall to the floor dead.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steven screamed as he awoke from his sleep, causing the temple door to open and for the gems to run up to his bedroom to see what had caused him to scream. "Steven! What's wrong?"

Steven couldn't reply instantly as he was trying to calm himself down with his frantic breathing. This only caused the gems to worry more about what had happened. "Are you okay, Steven?"

Steven eventually managed to calm himself down but afterwards, he broke down in tears as he clutched onto Pearl and sobbed into her shoulder. Pearl returned his embrace and rubbed his back to comfort him. "It's okay, Steven... You're safe now..."

"P-Pearl..." Steven sobbed. "I-It was a-awful..."

"What happened, Ste-man?" Amethyst asked.

"I... I-I... I had a n-nightmare..." Steven sniffed, his voice a bit muffled since he was crying into Pearl's shoulder. "I-I didn't h-have control over myself... I k-killed you all.... A-And then I k-killed myself..."

The gems gasped as they heard what he had seen. This then caused Garnet and Amethyst to join in trying to comfort the Pink Diamond hybrid as they hugged him tightly. They knew he had gone through a lot, losing his eye, his best friend, it wasn't a thing a 14-year-old should go through. It just wasn't right for a kid like Steven to suffer through what he had seen.

Just then, Lapis, Peridot, Bismuth and the Diamonds burst into the house after they heard the commotion from inside the house. "We heard Steven scream! Is everything alright?"

Garnet turned to the group who had burst in. "Steven had a nightmare."

Lapis felt her non-existent heart clench. She knew what a nightmare was, since she had one a while back about Jasper and Malachite when Steven slept over at the barn one time before all this happened. Steven explained to her what it was before he comforted her after her horrible night terror. She felt really bad for him, since she knew how sweet Steven was and how much he didn't deserve to go through what he had just gone through.

"Will he be okay?" Blue asked, worried about the hybrid.

"He'll be fine. Give him a few moments and he'll be okay." Pearl answered to Blue's question.

Blue nodded as her, Yellow and a Peridot headed back to their respective places while Lapis stayed inside the house by sitting on the couch and Bismuth stepping onto the warp pad so she could work at her forge.

Lapis felt as if Steven needed to be with someone. She felt like that he could do with going out to a place he likes. She does hear him talk about Funland a few times. So maybe she could take him there to cheer him up after his night terror.

Lapis nodded her head internally. She would ask Steven if he wanted to go to Funland just so she can cheer him up. Once the gems have finished comforting Steven, of course.

And after a few moments of the gems hugging their Steven, he finally stopped crying and was okay for now. Pearl then whipped him up some breakfast with waffles as she knew he enjoyed them. Steven was currently in the shower, cleaning himself up before his day actually started. Lapis was up at the breakfast bar, watching Pearl cook his breakfast while waiting for Steven to come out of the bathroom.

Pearl then looked at Lapis. "So, what brings you here after what happened this morning?"

"Well.. I'm going to ask him if he wants to go out to this 'Funland' place I've heard him talk about." Lapis said. "You know, to cheer him up after what happened."

"That's actually a very good idea." Pearl commented. "He loves hanging out with you and I think he definitely needs this after the nightmare he had."

"Has he had nightmares like this before?" Lapis asked in curiosity.

"A few times." Pearl responded. "But those were after Jasper invaded and when he got sucked into space one time. I'll tell you, after that whole experience, he was afraid of Ruby for a while."

"Why's that?" Lapis then asked.

"That Eyeball Ruby tried to take his gem while she was inside her bubble but he had no choice but to fling her out into space." Pearl spoke. "I don't know if he still harbours the guilt he felt after doing that..."

"All the actions we perform leave an impact on us." Lapis remarked. "And we can't rid of those impacts."

"Very true." Pearl said, grabbing a can of whipped cream and spraying it onto Steven's waffles before placing a few strawberries onto it.

And as if on cue, Steven walked out of the bathroom in his usual outfit and toward the breakfast bar. "Oh, hey Lapis."

"Hey Steven." Lapis responded, giving him a little wave. Steven nodded back before jumping onto a chair next to Lapis and receiving his breakfast from Pearl. He then grabbed his knife and fork and dug into his breakfast.

Lapis watched as the hybrid ate but at a slower pace than usual. Probably because he was still trying to recover from that awful night terror. It still made her chest clench at the sight of her Beach Summer Fun Buddy suffering like that. From the stories of him on Homeworld she heard from him, it made her more angry toward White Diamond at how she did that to a child who wouldn't hurt a fly. She wanted to protect him from her, and she would now as she was now a new knight for him thanks to the sword training from Pearl she got.

After Steven was done with his breakfast, Lapis then decided to pop the question. "Hey Steven?"

Steven turned to her. "Yeah? What it is Lapis?"

"I've been hearing you talk about this place here called 'Funland' and I was wondering if me and you could go there, you know, to help cheer you up after what happened?" Lapis inquired.

"Yeah. I think it'd be fun! Besides, I definitely need it after what happened." Steven replied, making the ocean gem smile. "Let me grab my hoodie and we'll head off."

Lapis nodded. She watched as he went upstairs and grabbed his hoodie and put on some black sneakers that he hadn't wore in a while since he mostly wore flip flops. Once he got his hoodie, Lapis followed him out the door and into the town, where Lapis would try her best to cheer up her crush in anyway she could.


	11. Funland

As the two walked toward the fairground in the small beachfront town, Lapis looked over at Steven. She still felt really bad for how much he had gone through. Losing his eye, his best friend and now having a nightmare about how he killed all his family, including her. Steven was such a sweet kid, he shouldn't have to go through something like this. But even so, the events that had transpired were almost unforgettable.

At least she was gonna try and cheer him up with this visit to Beach City Funland, a place where he and the gems would go if they didn't have any missions to go on or if Steven wanted to. But right now, he needed to get his mind off of what he saw in his nightmare last night. And she knew that this was one of the best ways to do so.

Lapis then began to feel those warm feelings again. Those feelings Garnet told Lapis about after she and Pearl finished sword training. She smiled to herself, it was like she was on what humans called a 'date', but since Steven didn't know of her feelings toward him, he wouldn't call this a date. He would call this just a friendly day out together.

Soon enough, Lapis and Steven reached Funland, which didn't look as busy as it usually was. There were a few groups of people here, but not as many as you would usually see in this time of year. It was probably due to the fact that it was still Spring but soon enough, it would be Summer in a few months time and the tourists and residents of town would soon flood this place.

Once they were inside Funland, Lapis turned to Steven. "So, what would you like to do first?"

"Well... how about we start off with a few games before we head on any rides?" Steven suggested. "You know, just to take it slow."

Lapis smiled at him. "Sounds good to me."

Steven then lead Lapis to one of the games here in Funland that were mostly rigged. Since the owner, Mr Smiley, rigged them himself just so not everyone could win. Since hey, most games at a carnival are rigged. People need to make money some way or another. But if the game had enough money, the game would allow the player to win it and gain one of many stuffed plushies that the game held on display.

The game they had gone up to was this water game. To win, all you had to do was fill the balloon on top of a pillar with water that you fired from a gun through a quite small hole. If the balloon popped, you won. But if you couldn't fill it within a 30 second time frame, you lost of course.

"This one's quite easy, but it requires some pretty good aim." Steven said, taking out a few quarters from his pocket and placing them on the table, where Mr Smiley took them and started up the game. Lapis watched as Steven tried to win this game, but then noticed that the stream of water coming from the cannon he was firing it from wasn't firing straight toward the hole he was trying to get the water into. It was going into some sort or arch shape.

"Must be one of those 'rigged' games Steven told me about.." Lapis thought as she continued to watch him try to win the game.

However, it ended in a loss. Steven looked quite disappointed. "Aw man, I can never seem to win this one..."

Lapis then took a look at the game he just played, and then back at Steven. She wanted to try something. "Hey Steven?"

"Yeah? What is it Lapis?" Steven asked.

"Could I try this out?" She answered. "I may be able to win this."

Steven's disappointed look changed to a happy looking one. "Sure! I'll pay to play again for you."

Steven then took out two more quarters from his pocket and gave them to Mr Smiley. Lapis took her position at the water cannon and once the game started and the water started coming out of the gun, she used her water powers to manipulate the water into going into a straight line towards the hole. The balloon at the top of the pillar filled up very quickly and after a few seconds of her making the water go into the hole, the balloon burst.

This gave her a win. Lapis smirked at she looked upon her victory. "It was just like you said Steven, quite easy."

Mr Smiley gave her a funny look as he handed her prize over to the water gem. The prize in question was a little sea turtle plushie. Lapis then took the prize and headed back to Steven, where she gave him the plushie. "Thanks Lapis! Even if you had to use your water powers to win this for me, I'm surprised you won this for me at all!"

"Well, it did take some additional help." Lapis said. "But hey, I did it for you."

"Aww, thanks." Steven responded. "Anyway, what should we do now?"

"Let's see what else this place has to offer." Lapis spoke. "After all, it's our day together, and I'm allowing you to call the shots."

Steven giggled. "Alright then. Let's go."

Steven then lead the ocean gem around the fairground and played a few more games. They tried the ball toss, which was quite hard since it seemed that the cans on the bottom were magnetised to the shelf they were on, but eventually moved on. Then there was the ring toss, and to no avail, neither of them won. If Peridot was with them, she would've surely won it thanks to her metal powers. Then they did a game of skee ball, with the pair of them enjoying their game together as they decided to play together on the same row.

Now this is what Lapis loved to see, the one she loved the most being happy. She really didn't like seeing him sad and depressed, since she usually saw him as that happy kid who freed her from that mirror a few years ago and that hybrid who managed to give her a new home here on Earth after being freed from Malachite. He had done so much for her, that she felt like that she would at sometime repay him for what he has done for her. And today felt like one of those things to repay Steven's deeds for her. She really was enjoying her time with Steven here at Funland.

After an hour of playing games, Steven was getting a little peckish so he decided to buy some cotton candy from one of the confectionary stands in Funland. He opened the bag of cotton candy and then ripped off a part of the pink cotton candy to give to Lapis. "Hey, do you wanna try some of this?"

Lapis looked at the fluffy pink cloud of sugar in some confusion. "What is this?"

"It's cotton candy. It's something that's usually sold around here but it tastes great." Steven replied. "This flavour is strawberry."

"Strawberry?" Lapis questioned.

"Trust me, you'll like it. It's not like that ice cream you had a few days ago, but it's something a little different." Steven assured.

Lapis then took the piece of cotton candy from Steven and looked at it. It felt very different from the bubblegum ice cream she had when they were on the beach with the other gems. It was much lighter, and fluffier of course. Lapis then slowly opened her mouth and took in the piece of cotton candy.

It felt and tasted much different from the ice cream, but to her surprise, it was delicious. Her eyes lit up once again as she continued to take in the confection. But as she continued to consume it, what she didn't realise is that her gem glowed a gentle but bright light blue. Steven, of course, noticed this.

"You must love it don't you?" Steven asked. "Your gem is glowing."

"Huh?" Lapis questioned again. "Is it really?"

"Yeah, it is." Steven responded. "It looks really pretty."

"Oh.. I didn't really know my gem could do or look like that..." Lapis commented. "It's mostly because I can't see it with it being on my back and all.."

"My gem has glowed before, it's mostly when I'm really happy. Just like how you are eating that cotton candy." Steven said. "And besides, when it glows like that, it really does look pretty."

Lapis chuckled as her cheeks blushed a deep blue, her form feeling warm once again. "Awww, t-thanks Steven.."

"Anyway, shall we move on?" Steven asked. "How about we do that fun house over there?"

"A what house?" Lapis inquired, confused about what Steven meant.

"It's just a building filled with some wacky mirrors and other stuff. It's harmless fun." Steven briefly explained.

"Okay then, Steven. Lead the way." Lapis said.

And so, Steven lead Lapis and himself over to the fun house. Once they walked in, they encountered some spinning floors, a few moving staircases that almost made Steven fall, but was quickly saved by Lapis, and the usual stuff you'd see at a fun house when the funfair was in town.

At one point, they'd reached a hall of mirrors, where there'd be some weird mirrors that made you look skinny or fat or even some that just made you look weird. Lapis looked at herself in the wacky mirrors with a confused expression. How did these simply give enjoyment to the humans who came in here for a laugh about how silly they looked in the mirrors? What point did this contraption have? But instead of questioning it further, she continued to follow Steven through the hall of mirrors.

She found Steven messing around with a wavy looking mirror, laughing to himself about how he looked in it. He seemed to look like he was having a good time, that is until something familiar looking flashed in the mirror. In the mirror, he looked like himself, but all of a sudden, it changed to a familiar figure that Steven recognised from anywhere and from quite recently.

Instead of seeing himself in the mirror, he saw her.

Pink Diamond.

This caused him to yelp in shock and fly back into a wall behind him, concerning Lapis as she ran up to him and held him in an embrace. "Steven! What's wrong?"

"I... I-I.." Steven stuttered.

"Did you see something?" Lapis asked, her voice full of worry for the one she cares about the most.

"I-I think I saw my mom..." Steven spoke. "In the mirror..."

Lapis then placed her hands on his shoulders. "Steven. Whatever you saw wasn't real. That nightmare you had must've really traumatised you real badly... But it's okay, it wasn't real."

Steven was silent for a few moments. She was right on with how the nightmare from last night affected him, it was traumatising to even watch. But on the other side, she was right. What happened in the nightmare wasn't real and wasn't ever gonna BE real.

"You're right, Lapis. What I saw last night was not real. It's just all in my head..." Steven said.

Lapis then looked toward the exit from the fun house. "Should we go?"

"Yeah, let's head to somewhere else but this place." Steven answered. "How about the Ferris wheel?"

Lapis nodded. The two then made their way to the Ferris wheel and paid their admission to get on. Once they were on, the wheel began to move upward. And once they were at the maximum height this wheel could reach, Lapis looked out in awe as she could see mostly everything in the beachfront town.

"You can really see everything from here." Lapis commented on the view.

"Yeah." Steven spoke. "It's really nice up here."

Lapis noticed the sadness in his voice, something was wrong with him. Was it because of what he saw in the fun house? Or was it of something else?

Lapis then looked toward Steven, her expression full of concern. "Is something wrong, Steven?"

Steven was silent. This concerned Lapis even more. "Steven? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine... I'm just a little depressed, that's all." Steven whispered to her.

"Why is that? Just a few hours ago, you were sounding as happy as you could be with me when we played those games and when we ate that confectionary sugar snack. What's up?" Lapis asked the diamond hybrid.

Steven looked out at the view by the side of him and then back at the very concerned Lapis, unsure if he should tell Lapis what was making him feel like how he was now compared to how he was a few hours ago.

Lapis got out of her seat and sat down next to Steven, wrapping an arm around him. "C'mon Steven, you can tell me anything. I'll listen to anything you have to say. As I am one of the closest people to you, I'm always here for you."

Steven then took a deep breath before exhaling and turning to Lapis. "It's just that... being here on this Ferris wheel with you now.. it reminds me of the time me and Connie went on here..."

"Back when she was still alive, we went to Funland together as best friends one day and we did the things we almost exactly did today like what we did back then. Before we were supposed to leave, we went on this Ferris wheel together as a last ride. And just being on here with you reminds me how much I miss her..." Steven explained. "She was my best friend, and I still can't believe she's gone... We were quite close as friends together, I always enjoyed hanging out with her. Even if she was human, I still enjoyed her company at times. But now that she's gone I.. I-I..."

Then without warning, Steven embraced onto Lapis tightly as he began to break down in tears. "I c-can't seem to b-blame myself for her death... I shouldn't have brought her along... M-Maybe then she would still be alive..."

Lapis then quickly returned the embrace as she hugged Steven. She knew how much Steven valued his friendship with Connie and how much she meant to him. Even if she did do something that quite hurt Steven back in the past, he still cared for his best friend Connie.

"It's okay Steven..." She whispered. "It's all gonna be okay..."

Steven slowly nodded as he continued to sob into Lapis' shoulder, she responded by slowly rubbing his back in a circle motion in an attempt to calm him down and comfort him. Lapis felt her non-existent heart clench as she hugged the hybrid child with all of her love for him.

Lapis cradled him, holding him tightly as he continued to let out his emotions. She was gonna make his life better, once she had the courage to tell him how she really feels about him. And once that was done, she would be sure to always love him and protect him with all that she had.


	12. Unexpected Arrival

The next day....

"How far till we reach Earth, Kunzite?" One of White's soldier gems asked. "The crew is prepped and ready for battle."

"Not far now, Commander Tourmaline." Kunzite responded. "Does everyone remember their mission?"

"Shatter the rebel gems and retrieve Pink Diamond. It shan't be hard, Kunzite." Tourmaline spoke. "I mean, they and those two traitorous Diamonds may have been able to escape Homeworld the first time that easily, but not this time...."

"You are correct, Tourmaline. Now please, return to your duties." Kunzite ordered.

Tourmaline nodded. "Yes Kunzite." And with that, she left the bridge where Kunzite was controlling the ship.

Meanwhile, on Earth...

All the gems had gathered at the Sky Arena, where Steven, Lapis and even Jon were up with Pearl while everyone else was sat at the seats around the arena watching over the three, including the Diamonds too. Currently, all of them were watching Pearl train Jon as he was doing some ability training with her.

"So, other from letting your partner 'Onyx' take control and turn you into quite the beast, what other abilities do you have?" The slim pale gem asked.

"Well... I can use Onyx's claws and arms to my advantage. They can stretch pretty far and can shape into any weapon I want." Jon replied.

"Could you demonstrate for us?" Pearl asked the artificial hybrid. "Here, I'll summon some Holo-Pearls for you."

And so, she summoned three holograms of Pearl out of her gem and placed them in front of Jon. He then looked at his hands and allowed Onyx to form one of his claws as his arm was covered in Onyx's black ooze-like skin and his hand was replaced by their claw. Jon then slung his arm forward and the claw stretched out toward one of the Holo-Pearls and clawed at it, causing the Holo-Pearl to fizz out of existence.

Jon retracted his arm and then formed it into the shape of a quite long blade. The sight of what Jon did amazed mostly everyone, even the Diamonds.

"I've never seen any kind of Onyx gem do such a thing." Yellow remarked. "Maybe because, most Onyx gems can't do what he can."

"Maybe the Onyx gem White placed into him was off colour?" Blue suggested.

"Maybe, Blue." Yellow said. "Just maybe..."

Jon then slashed his blade-hand toward the other two Holo-Pearls and took them out in almost a few femtoseconds. Pearl, Lapis and Steven looked at Jon in awe as they admired how he managed to do that in such a quick time. Jon retracted his arm back once again and Onyx's claw was replaced by Jon's own arm.

"That good enough of a demonstration, Pearl?" Onyx spoke.

"Y-Yes.. Thank you, Jon." Pearl stuttered before recollecting herself. "Now, for the rest of this session, here's what I'd like the three of you to do. Lapis, you'll be training with me on some more sword fighting techniques. Steven, you'll be training with Garnet. And Jon will do some more ability training with a few of my Holo-Pearls. Do we all understand?"

The three of them nodded. Pearl smiled and clasped her hands together. "Good. Now, to your assigned tasks for the day."

And so, Steven went with Garnet to do some training with her, Lapis drew out her sword and walked with Pearl to one side of the arena while Jon stayed in his spot and practised using his other abilities of what he had demonstrated on some more Holo-Pearls the slim gem had created for him.

Once Garnet and Steven got to their spot in the arena, they started off their session together with some reaction time tests. Where Garnet would throw a punch with her gauntlets towards Steven and he would need to summon his shield in a quick enough time frame so he could block the blow with it. Garnet was being careful not to hurt her cutie pie, since if he was a little bit slow, she would stop herself before her gauntlet could make contact with his body.

Steven was pretty good with these, since he has developed his skill so much overtime during his life living with the Crystal Gems and experiencing so much the past few months.

But when they moved onto a sparring match together, and with Steven managing to successfully block Garnet's gauntlets easily, he started to feel some deja vu all of a sudden. Like he had gone through something similar like this before. And that's when he remembered where it was familiar from.

It was from a month ago, when he was on Homeworld and he had just decided to pair up with Jon. Steven could remember most things from what had happened during their time together.

___________________________________________  
"Is it clear?" Steven asked.

"Seems so." Jon responded. "I don't see any of White's guards searching for us here. We should be good."

Jon then stood up from his kneeled position on top of a building and looked down at the ground, where he saw the Homeworld gems doing their usual maintenance work or some of them walking down the pathway below to their court. He then turned to Steven. "Alright, my plan is that we jump down to that level and then we discretely make our way through here. If things go to plan, we should make it out of the Central Plaza. You on board for this, kid?"

Steven nodded. "I'm on board."

"Alright then." Jon spoke. He then motioned for Steven to come up to him and jump onto his back, which the diamond hybrid did and watched as Jon jumped off the roof of the building and allowed Onyx to use his claws to slow their decent to the ground. They eventually landed onto the ground, where Steven leapt from his back and then followed Jon down one of the pathways that lead out of Central Plaza.

As Steven ran with Jon, he already started to feel a connection with him. Probably because he was a hybrid like Steven, even when he was an artificially made hybrid instead of a naturally born hybrid like Steven was. Steven felt like he could trust him, since he saved him from capture by those Amethyst guards that White sent after him.

The two hybrids continued moving, and while so, Steven looked around at the world around him. From what he had heard from Pearl's descriptions of what Homeworld looked like, they were almost pretty accurate. It was like he had just discovered a civilisation like no other, coming from the structures he saw and how the gems on this planet acted. He was also awed at the advancement of the technology around him. It was like he stepped into a Sci-Fi novel he had read, but in this case, it was all real to him.

The two then stopped suddenly. Steven turned to Jon. "Why have we stopped?"

"We've gotta find another way out of Central Plaza." Jon responded. "If we go through the border that all gems have to pass through to get out of here, then there's a high chance of the alarms being raised since White's probably put out an order for all gems to try and capture us."

"Then where else can we get out of this place?" Steven asked the artificial Onyx hybrid.

Jon then looked up at a structure that looked like a monorail or train track. He then saw the Homeworld train car speed down the track at a much faster speed then any human-made train or monorail, which then gave Jon a new idea.

"We can use the monorail." Jon spoke. "If we jump onto that, then we'll be able to get out of here faster."

"Good thinking, Jon." Onyx commented.

"I agree." Steven said. "But how are we going to get through the station without being seen as fugitives?"

Jon and Onyx then thought hard about any ideas about how they were all going to get through the monorail station discreetly. Since they were part human, there was no doubt that going through in their current forms would peak attention from any Homeworld guards.

And that's when an idea struck Jon.

"Onyx. I just got an idea." Jon spoke.

"Does it require me?" Onyx asked.

"Yes it does." Jon replied. "Is there anyway that you can make me look like a normal Onyx gem?"

"Where is this idea going?" Steven asked them.

"My idea is that I make myself look like a normal Onyx gem from White's court and pretend I've captured you and I'm taking you to White. I doubt anyone would suspect a thing." Jon answered Steven. "What do you think? Would it work?"

"I'd say it would probably work." Steven responded. "I mean, any idea we have, we'll try."

"Good to know." Onyx spoke. "And also, yes, I could make us look like a normal Onyx gem. It may not be my ordinary form, but it'll work."

Jon then nodded and allowed Onyx to form himself around him but not in the beastly form they would usually use. The same coal-black ooze-like skin formed around him, but didn't turn Jon into something twice his size and into a Venom-like form. Instead, Onyx took the form of what the usual Onyx gem looked like with a White Diamond uniform and all. But instead of the form looking like a feminine one, it was a more masculine form but with all the appearance of what the usual Onyx gem looks like.

"Will this work?" Onyx asked.

Steven gave him a thumbs up. "I'm sure it'll work."

Onyx then nodded as he then started Jon's plan by starting with holding Stevens hands behind his back and leading him inside the monorail station in front of them. As they walked in, they saw a lot of gems that passed through the station, either leaving it or entering it to get on the monorail to the next section of Homeworld over. But it was not your typical human train station.

There were also gem guards which patrolled the station, making sure that everything was following Homeworld's rules and that order wasn't broken within the walls of the station. And not only that, but keeping an eye out for Steven and Jon.

"We're in." Jon spoke internally to Onyx. "I hope to god this plan works."

"It will. All we got to do is keep a low profile and focus on our act." Onyx responded to his partner's words.

The two then kept on moving through the station, keeping sure that they weren't showing any signs of their act not being legit. Jon kept his breath held while Onyx lead the charge as they continued to lead Steven to the monorail all while pretending he was their prisoner and that they were going to take him back to White Diamond.

However, just before they were going to enter the scanners that checked each gem and their records, a White Topaz approached them, holding their main gem weapon, a spear, in their hands while a energy pistol sat in their holster at their hip. The gem seemed to show signs of belonging to White's court.

"State your designation and purpose." They stated.

"Onyx Facet-42Z5 Cut-1AL. Designated to bring in Pink Diamond back to White Diamond." Onyx responded with a fake designation.

"Ah, brilliant. White's been awaiting her return." The White Topaz said. "Where did you find her?"

"Found them in Central Plaza making a run for the escape pods." Onyx lied again.

"Hmm." The White Topaz responded. She then walked towards Steven. "Good job, Onyx. I will take her to White Diamond immediately."

"It was said that I would bring her to White." Onyx spoke.

"Then it wouldn't hurt to bring her to White myself?" The White Topaz replied. "I can tell my Diamond that you were the one who found her."

"I can do it myself..." Onyx growled.

The White Topaz seemed to be losing her patience. "Hand over the prisoner to me. That's an order."

"She's not buying it." Jon said to Onyx internally. "Switch to drastic measures."

Onyx then let go of Steven and grabbed onto the White Topaz before merging into his original, beastly form, making the look on the White Topaz's face go from focused to terrified at what she was seeing.

"When I say, I'll do it myself. Means I'LL DO IT MYSELF!"

Onyx then opened his mouth and bit off the gem's head, causing them to poof and their gem to fall onto the floor. Onyx then retracted back into Jon and all that was left was Jon and Steven standing together. Jon then looked around at the surprised, shocked or angry gems around the two.

"Ah, shit." Jon muttered.

"It's those fugitive hybrids!" One gem called out. "Acquire them for White!"

"We gotta get out of here!" Steven spoke, grabbing Jon's hand after he managed to pick up the White Topaz's energy pistol and take Steven's hand.

The two then ran through the crowds of gems as they ran towards the monorail platform. And as they did, they. Ran into the scanners, causing them to be shown as what people would look like in an X-Ray scanner but they had big white spots that indicated their gems on their bodies as they were inside the scanners.

The gems took notice of Steven's Pink Diamond gem and ran from their stations and into the scanner to try and confront the hybrids. Jon looked to his left to see some soldier gems running after them and then decided to try a new way out of the scanners.

He took hold of Steven's hand and then ran toward the black glass before jumping into it, causing the whole pane of X-Ray glass to shatter into pieces as Steven and Jon leaped out of the scanners before running towards the monorail platform.

As they ran, Jon looked behind them to see how far apart they were from them. And sure enough, they were behind them and catching up to the two hybrids. Eventually, they reached an escalator and ran onto it, where they tried to shove past the gems that were trying to get to the monorail platform too.

But as they were heading up on it, some more soldier gems came to the top of the escalator and started firing energy projectiles towards them, causing Steven to summon his shield in defence while Jon pulled out the energy weapon he looted from the poofed White Topaz and shoot towards them.

He managed to hit a few gems, causing them to poof while Steven threw his shield towards the soldier gems behind them, causing them to fall back down the escalator. Eventually, they reached the top and continued running forward to the platform.

And just as they reached it, the monorail was just leaving, causing the two to run up to one of the windows of the monorail car and trying to break it. Eventually, Onyx turned one of Jon's arms into a claw and smashed one of the windows so they could jump inside.

Eventually, the soldier gems from before finally arrived at where the two hybrids were and began shooting at them again, causing Jon to grab onto Steven as they managed to jump into the monorail car in time, all while the soldier gems continued to fire at the monorail car but didn't manage to hit them as the monorail had left the station and gone into its usual fast speeds.

Jon and Steven got off the floor and stood up, taking a moment to catch their breath. "Well... we're on the monorail now."

"Yep. Now, we can continue to find your family, kid." Jon responded to his comment. "Once we're in the next district of Homeworld, we can continue the search. Hopefully we manage to keep a low profile for much longer there."

*end of flashback*  
An hour later...

Steven had just finished a sparring match with Garnet, that ended with him managing to win against her. Usually, she would win, probably due to her future vision. But this time, in a turn of events, Steven managed to get her to yield after managing to let out a surprising new attack that involved a supercharged shield throw.

"Well done, Steven." Garnet commented, rustling his curly hair. "You put out a very good effort out there."

"I'm impressed with you, Steven." Blue Diamond said, smiling down at him. "You're more impressive than Pink was when she was learning to fight with her shield."

Steven chuckled. "Thanks Blue."

"Anyway, I'd say this concludes our training session for today." Pearl announced. "Now, as Garnet told me this morning, there aren't any missions on today so that means we can-"

"Oh no..." Garnet muttered, her voice sounding slightly shaky.

"Garnet?" Lapis asked. "Is something wrong?"

Garnet looked at the gems, removing her visor showing off her three eyes. "A vision just came to me.... It was of a ship..."

"What did this ship look like?" Yellow Diamond inquired.

"It was White... and in the shape of a hand." Garnet answered.

The whole group of gems gasped. They knew what this meant. It meant that White had sent her first wave of gems to come after Steven and to try and recapture him.

"W-We've gotta head back to the Temple!" Lapis yelled out, drawing out her blue sword. "If those gems of White's wanna come here and try and take our Steven.. They've gotta get through all of us first!"

"Lapis has the right idea." Garnet spoke. "Gems! To the warp pad!"

The group of gems, including the diamonds, ran to the warp pad and warped back to the Temple to tackle on White's first wave of gems she had sent down to Earth to try and take back Steven. The gems weren't going to let that happen however, no matter what.


	13. The First Wave

As the light from the warp pad in the house dissipated, the gems on it instantly ran out of the house and onto the beach, where they could clearly see that Garnet's prediction was correct. There was a few ships heading toward them and they sure did look like they came from White Diamond.

The ships were hand shaped, but were a bright white colour rather than the green coloured hand ships the Crystal Gems saw from back when Peridot was against them. They were clustered together in a group like a group of birds migrating to the south. But rather than moving away, they were incoming closer and closer towards the Temple.

"Those are definitely ships from White's court..." Blue stated, looking upon the incoming ships.

"I guess this is the first wave of gems she's sending to come after us." Yellow said.

"And I'm sure they're in no mood to talk." Jon remarked. "From the number of ships I see there, they've come here for a fight."

Garnet then turned to Steven. "Steven, tell Nanafua to evacuate the town and sound the alarms."

Steven nodded and ran back into the house to grab a hand radio that she gave him so he could easily contact her. He picked it up from his bedside table and pressed the speak button after switching it on.

"Nanafua, we have a problem." Steven stated.

"What's wrong? Is it a Code White?" The old lady asked.

"No. White's sent some gems over to attack us and I need you to evacuate the town until we've handled the situation. Sound the alarms." Steven responded.

"I will get the town evacuated now." Nanafua spoke, cutting off the radio to start sounding the alarms.

And after a few seconds, he heard the sirens that signalled the incoming invasion and then ran back to the beach, where they saw the gems and the Diamonds talking about a plan they could do to stop the gems.

"First thing we could try to do is to shoot down the ships." Yellow suggested. "Mine and Blue's abilities could probably do the job right."

"And if that doesn't work?" Amethyst asked.

"Then we fight them head on." Blue answered. "With us on your side, we shouldn't have much of a problem taking them down."

"I mean, we're at kind of an advantage here." Jon said. "You two are Diamonds, after all. And from the stuff I've seen you do, you're pretty damn powerful enough to help us take on these clowns from White's court."

"Jon does have a point." Garnet remarked.

"Alright then." Peridot clapped her hands together and rubbed them. "Let's take on these clods!"

The group of gems nodded and took their stances on the beach. Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl and Bismuth summoned their weapons and stood together, Lapis took out her sword while Steven summoned his shield and Peridot stood beside him as they all stood together, Jon allowed Onyx to take control and form over him into his form and the Diamonds grew to their original size and conjured up their powers as their hands sparked and glowed their respective colours.

They stood their ground, watching as the ships began to descend towards them all. Steven looked up to the Diamonds and nodded to them. The Diamonds then stretched their arms out and began to charge up an attack towards the ships.

"Fire!" Steven cried.

Yellow and Blue then fired their attacks toward the ships, where they rapidly sped toward the White hand ships. However, one of the ships summoned up an energy shield and blocked the attacks, causing them to explode against the shield.

"Try it again!" Steven ordered.

The Diamonds then tried another attempt at taking down the ships with another attack. They charged up and then fired again. The attacks were seeming to be able to cause some damage, however the ship they were aiming at blocked that attack too.

"It's not working!" Garnet yelled.

"White must've modified these ships a little to protect against our attacks. She probably knew that we'd fight back against her to protect you, Steven." Yellow suggested.

"That's probably the case.." Onyx spoke.

"I got an idea!" Amethyst said, turning to Pearl. "Pearl, fuse with me!"

Pearl turned to Amethyst and nodded before taking Amethyst's hand. The two then did a twirl and caused a bright light to form around them, until disappearing to reveal Opal. The fusion then summoned their bow and arrow and pulled back on the string of the bow, causing a brightly glowing arrow to appear in the bow.

"Fire!" Garnet called.

Opal then let go of the string and sent the arrow flying at a much faster speed than the Diamond's attacks. The ships then tried to form their energy shield, but due to the speed of the arrow, they couldn't stop one of the ships being impaled by the arrow shot by Opal, causing the ship to fall into the ocean.

"Great hit!" Peridot yelled in excitement. "Hit them again!"

Opal pulled back on their bow and summoned another arrow. They let go of the string and sent another arrow flying. However, after their last arrow managed to down one of the ships, the ships managed to get their shield up faster than the arrow as the arrow hit the shield and didn't do any damage to them.

Then, the lead ship pointed toward Opal and then started charging up its own attack. They fired their energy shot toward the fusion, but they managed to infuse in time just as Steven summoned his shield and enlarged it to make sure that Pearl and Amethyst weren't hit by the quite damaging projectile.

"Should we fire another attack, Steven?" Blue asked.

"No. Everyone hold your ground!" Steven ordered.

And so, everyone followed Steven's suggestion and awaited them to land on the beach. And eventually, the ships landed on the shore. The lead ship opened up to reveal the leader of the operation, Kunzite, who walked onto the beach accompanied by the gems on the ship.

"Pink Diamond!" The Kunzite called out. "On behalf of White Diamond, you have been charged for desertion of Homeworld, assault on a Diamond's Pearl, assault of other soldier gems and various other charges. The Diamonds in your company are also charged with treason and being an accessory to Pink's escape. We order you to stand down and surrender."

"You will not have Steven!" Pearl yelled at them, pointing her spear towards the Kunzite. This caused the rest of the gems to take a step closer to the gems that White had sent for them.

"If you do not hand over Pink or the treasonous Diamonds, we will take them by force!" The Kunzite loudly stated.

"We wont let you take our Steven without a fight!" Blue called out to them, her hands glowing a bright blue.

"Fine. Then I guess we'll have to take care of you traitors first..." Kunzite spoke. "Gems, advance!"

And so, the gems from the main ship and the other ships that were on the shore ran towards the gems while Garnet lead a charge toward them. The Crystal Gems and the Diamonds ran toward the gems White had sent and so began the battle.

Onyx leaped toward the gems and clawed at them, causing a few of their forms to poof or to be pushed back. Onyx then grabbed one of the gems that didn't poof and chomped down on the gems' head, causing their form to poof while their gem fell into the water. They then advanced further towards the other soldier gems.

Garnet and Pearl striped into the fight by attacking the invading gems left and right in much precision. They were seeming to be doing a great job managing to poof them and then bubbling them to send to the Burning Room once this whole score was dealt with. The two then decided to fuse together so they could take out more gems than they could when they were separate. The two fused together into Sardonyx and used their hammer to take out larger groups of gems around them.

The Diamonds used a combination of their powers and by stomping onto the gems below. They were definitely no match for a diamond. But despite how they managed to overpower them, White's gems kept on pressing on, determined to capture Steven.

Lapis stood by Steven as they fought together against the gems around them. Thanks to the training she got from Pearl, Lapis was flawlessly using her new sword to take them out one by one. Steven was stunned by how well she was doing it, she was doing better than Connie could have done if she was here. He then flung his shield out and managed to stun a few gems, allowing Amethyst to poof them in one swift lash of her whip.

As the battle continued, Steven was then fighting against the leader of the operation, Kunzite. Now he may be a strong diamond hybrid, but Kunzite had some serious height on him. And probably strength too as it could be seen with how bulky the Kunzite looked.

He swung his shield at her, but the Kunzite somehow managed to catch it and then use it against him to hit him on the head, causing him to fall to the ground.

"I'd thought you'd be much tougher to fight, Pink." Kunzite taunted, pressing her foot against one of his arms that was trying to summon another shield to fight back with.

"But it seems that in your small stature, you're not quite the match for me. You put up a heck of a fight, I'll say that. But now, it's time for you to come home..."

Steven then tried to use his other arm to grab onto Kunzite's leg, but was soon pinned down by her other foot. Kunzite then summoned her gem weapon, which was a giant pink war-hammer. Steven looked on in fear of it, also reminding him of the time Jasper knocked him out with her crash helmet.

"White's been waiting for you, Pink..."

Kunzite then raised her hammer up, ready to swing it down on the hybrid and supposedly poof him so it would be easier to acquire him. Steven shut his eyes, awaiting the incoming impact.

However, that incoming hammer never hit him. All he hear was a pained shriek from who he assumed was Kunzite. And when he opened his eyes, he was correct. He saw Kunzite with now nothing in her hands (he supposedly suggested that whatever impaled her caused her weapon to disappear) and a blue blade that went right through her chest.

"You're not taking the one I care so much about anywhere, you monster..."

That voice came from one he knew so well. Lapis. She managed to save him from this Kunzite trying to take him back to that psychotic White Diamond.

The Kunzite then poofed, revealing Lapis still holding her sword, but then reaching a hand towards Steven. Steven smiles at her as he took her hand and got back on his feet.

"Thanks Lapis." Steven said.

"You would've done the same for me." Lapis responded. "Now, let's finish this, together."

Steven nodded towards her, holding onto her hand, a determined look on his face. "Together."

The two then let go of their hands and charged ahead towards the remaining gems. Steven used his shield to stun the gems while Lapis would use her sword to take them down. As her first experience as a knight for Steven, it felt good. Being able to protect the one she loved so much better than the last person who was Steven's 'knight'.

The battle raged on, until one of the gems noticed that they were no match for them as they were losing numbers rapidly.

"Retreat! Retreat!" They cried out.

And so, the soldier gems ran back to their ships in retreat. The Crystal Gems and the Diamonds stopped attacking and went back to the beach as they watched the remaining ships fly out to the sky and back to Homeworld. It was over. The first wave of gems that had come after them was over.

The gems put away their weapons, the Diamonds went back into their shrunken forms and Onyx retreated back into Jon, taking a breather after the intense battle that had just occurred.

Lapis and Steven walked over to the gems, putting away their weapons too as they dusted off their clothing.

"Well, I guess that's over now." Steven remarked.

"For now, at least.." Blue Diamond spoke. "She'll probably send more soon..."

Garnet nodded in agreement. "Then we'll have to be prepared for next time they come."

She then walked over to the poofed gems and began to bubble them. "Cmon, let's get these gems into the Temple."

The gems nodded and walked over to Garnet to help clear up the beach of the fallen soldier gems and some of the debris of some of the exploded ships on the shore.


	14. Take A Breather

The next day...

The sun had risen on a brand new day. After hours of cleaning up the beach of destroyed ship debris and poofed gems, the gems could all finally sit back for a while until White would send her next wave of gems to come after them. The cleanup wasn't hard, as bubbling the gem soldiers they poofed was simple but for the debris they had to move it to a place where the locals of the town wouldn't get hurt from mucking around with the ship debris.

Once the cleanup was done, they got everyone back into town and made sure that they got back in safely. Needless to say, the townspeople were surprised that they managed to get through that whole battle. But hey, when you have two giant and powerful people who used to rule parts of Homeworld, it's pretty much an instant win there.

In the Temple, Pearl was just entering the kitchen from her room in the Temple and getting out some ingredients for some pancakes she was going to make for Steven. She got out a skillet and placed it on the hob before going back to the counter to make the batter for Steven's breakfast.

The recipe for pancakes was simple enough for Pearl, as she mixed together eggs, flour and milk to create the batter. While mixing together the ingredients, she saw that Steven was still sleeping peacefully in his bed, mostly tired from the fight yesterday.

Pearl smiled to herself as she saw how peaceful he looked, like nobody could interrupt him at any moment. Unless they wanted to. Even with the threat of White Diamond looming over them, they all knew they'd try their best to keep the Earth (and also Steven) safe from the paragon and try to keep a positive thought in mind.

Once the batter was done, Pearl walked over to the stove and switched it on, heating up the pan she had put on it before she got to making the batter. She put a little bit of butter in the pan before pouring in some of the batter and then cooking it.

A few minutes later, Garnet had left her room in the Temple as she walked out into the house and then walking over to Pearl. "How is he?"

"Still sleeping." Pearl responded. "I'm just preparing his breakfast for when he wakes up. Any missions today?"

"No. Not after what happened yesterday." Garnet said, scratching the back of her left hand. "Steven needs to relax after what went down. I think we all need to relax after what went down the other day."

"Good call, Garnet. Steven should be tired after all that fighting." Pearl replied, taking a spatula from one of the drawers beneath her and flipping the pancake over to cook the uncooked side. "But again, they could strike again anytime."

"They can, but my future vision doesn't foresee any invasions from White's court for now." Garnet proclaimed. "We should be safe for now. If my future vision picks up on another wave from White, then I'll let everyone know so we can be prepared for it."

Pearl nodded as she took the now cooked pancake and placed it on a plate for Steven. She then picked up the batter bowl and poured another amount of it to make another one. "Are the Diamonds saying anything?"

"Like they said a couple of days ago, White will presumably send more after us. Just because her first wave failed to do her bidding doesn't mean we're out of the woods." Garnet said. "We need to be vigilant."

The pale gem nodded once more before the two gems finally noticed Steven shifting in his covers and then beginning to wake up. He let out a short yawn before getting out of bed and smacking his lips from the taste of his own breath. He then walked down the stairs down to the ground level and greeted the two.

"Hey Pearl. Hey Garnet." He greeted, the grogginess clearly shown in his voice.

"Good morning, Steven." Garnet replied. "Sleep well?"

"Mostly." Steven answered. "A little tired from the fight yesterday, but I'm good and well."

"Good to hear." Pearl said. "I'm making you some pancakes so get yourself cleaned up before breakfast, alright?"

Steven nodded before heading into the bathroom to take a shower to wake himself up more. As he showered, Pearl continued to cook Steven's breakfast while Garnet sat on the couch and let her thoughts empty themselves out in her mind.

A few minutes later, Lapis came into the house. "Hey."

"Oh, hello Lapis." Pearl greeted the water gem. "What brings you here? If it's about today's training, then I'm sorry to say that it's not on today. Me and Garnet thought it'd be better if all of us take a break as there are no missions today along with us thinking that all of us would need to take a breather after yesterday."

"No, it wasn't about that. I'd just thought I'd spend some more time with Steven to clear his head about what happened yesterday." Lapis responded. "Speaking of which, where is he?"

"He's currently in the shower. But he'll be out in a few minutes." Garnet replied to Lapis' question.

Lapis acknowledged Garnet's answer and sat next to her on the couch. Pearl was just finishing up with the last pancake and placed it on the plate. She turned off the stove and placed the plate of pancakes onto the breakfast bar, along with the usual condiments that you'd have for pancakes. Strawberries, whipped cream, maple syrup, hazelnut and chocolate spread, the usual stuff.

As the ocean gem waited, another gem left the Temple. And in this case, it was Amethyst. She walked out of her room, stretching herself out as she then noticed everyone else in the room, including Lapis.

"Sup guys?" She greeted.

"Hey Amethyst." Lapis responded, with the other two giving a simple 'hi' to the purple gem. Amethyst then walked over to Lapis and sat next to her on the couch. Lapis didn't know why she was sitting next to her, but shrugged it off.

Amethyst then leaned over and whispered. "So, what move is the water gem gonna make today?"

Lapis' eyes widened in surprise as she also blushed a dark blue from Amethyst's comment. How did she know? "U-Uh.. Amethyst? How did you-"

"Don't say I'm not the observant one. I've noticed how much more you've been around Steven." Amethyst replied. "And also the way you sometimes blush around him and all that stuff."

"What are you trying to pull here?" Lapis asked.

"I'm not trying to pull anything. I didn't know you had those kind of feelings for him, you know?" Amethyst spoke.

Lapis was silent for a few seconds, until she spoke up again. "Yeah. These feelings have been inside me ever since he freed me from Malachite and Jasper, ever since he managed to get me used to Earth, ever since all the things he did to take care of me and did for me. I had a talk about these feelings with Garnet and Pearl a few days ago and they both agreed that these were feelings of love for him. Not platonic love, but romantic love."

"Huh." Amethyst said.

"But the thing is that I don't know if he loves me back in the way I love him." She continued. "I know he cares a whole lot about me but what if he doesn't feel the same way I do about him? What if he-"

"Hey, Lapis. Can I tell you something?" Amethyst abruptly spoke, holding her hand out in front of her.

"What is it?" Lapis asked.

"I'm definitely sure that he likes you, but you need to step it up with how you interact with him. Show him that you're more than just a friend to him. If ya don't, then he's never gonna know your true feelings for him. You need to show him that you really love him, then he'll start seeing your true feelings for him." Amethyst responded.

"Garnet did say something on the lines about 'letting love do the talking'." Lapis remarked.

"I'd say be yourself. Don't be someone you're not. And with all that, he will surely fall for you." Amethyst finished.

Lapis smiled at the purple gem. "Thanks Amethyst. I guess Steven was right to call you the most mature Crystal Gem."

Amethyst blushed at her comment. "Thanks Lapis. Anyway, once he's done with showering and breakfast, maybe you could do something with him? You could watch a movie together, play some video games, make some of those meep morps that you and Peridot usually make, anything really."

"I'll think of something." Lapis assured.

Amethyst put a hand on Lapis' shoulder in assurance. "I know you will. Good luck."

She lightly tapped her shoulder before heading back into her room in the Temple. Once the Temple door closed, Steven walked out of the bathroom now wearing his usual attire and finishing off drying his hair with a towel. He put the towel to one side as he made his way to the breakfast bar to eat his morning meal.

Lapis then decided to sit with him as she made her way to one of the chairs at the breakfast bar and sat next to the Pink Diamond hybrid. She watched as he ate his pancakes that he had covered in maple syrup and a few strawberries on the side. Only two of the strawberries had been eaten and he had gotten through only half of his pancakes.

He then noticed Lapis sitting next to her. "Oh, good morning Lapis! What brings you here?"

"I thought it'd be nice for us to spend the day together, you know, to clear your mind off of that battle we had with some of White's gems yesterday." Lapis responded to Steven's question.

"Yeah, I think that would be nice." Steven replied to her reason, taking another bite of his pancakes. "What do you wanna do?"

Lapis tapped her chin as she thought of something the two could do together. She thought of the many things Amethyst suggested but wasn't sure about which one they should do together. Then, she remembered something that the two did a few days ago on the day that Yellow and Blue Diamond's pearls arrived on Earth.

"Hey, remember that thing you were playing on and that you showed me how to play it a few days ago?" Lapis asked him.

"Huh?" Steven wasn't sure about what Lapis was suggesting, but then eventually remembered what she was talking about. "Oh! I remember now! You wanna do that?"

"Yeah. Besides, you never finished it." Lapis said.

"Okay then. Just lemme finish my breakfast and I'll be with you. You can wait upstairs for me if you want." Steven responded.

Lapis nodded and then made her way upstairs to Steven's room, waiting for him to finish his food. And once he was finished, he gave his plate to Pearl so she could clean it and headed upstairs to Lapis. He then went over to the box he kept his Nintendo 64 cartridges in and rummaged through it to find a game they could play. He then turned to the water gem.

"Actually, instead of playing the game I was playing a few days ago, which was one player, how about I find a game we can both play?" Steven suggested.

"More people can play on this device you use for entertainment?" Lapis inquired.

"Yeah! I have more than one controller so maybe we could play a game together." Steven replied. "How's that sound?"

"Sounds good." Lapis said, giving him a thumbs up.

Steven nodded and continued to go through his cartridge collection looking for a multiplayer game on the console he and Lapis were going to play on. He found one and picked it up to see which one it was.

StarFox 64

This game did have a multiplayer option, but since he found the controls hard to figure out at first, he decided this game wasn't a good one to play with Lapis since she'd probably find the controls difficult to learn. The game was good, but it wasn't for a newcomer, Steven thought. He put the game back and picked up another one.

GoldenEye 007

Ah yes, the granddaddy of first-person shooters. The game that revolutionised split-screen multiplayer. It was a very good game, but Steven wasn't up for some violence. And also, he didn't think that Lapis would find it appealing. So he put the game back and reached for another one.

Mario Kart 64

Yes! This game was perfect for Lapis! The controls were easy to learn, and it was a quite simple racing game. A game perfect for him and Lapis. He took the cartridge and two controllers and went back over to the TV and Lapis. He plugged in the controllers, and placed the cartridge into the game slot before finally turning on the TV. He sat back down with Lapis and handed her the second controller.

The game started up and once he got to the game selection screen, he picked the multiplayer option and picked out a 50cc race and a track. They then got to the character select screen, where Steven chose Mario and allowed Lapis to pick hers. Again, she did find the controllers that the system used to be quite awkward to use due to its shape and the location of the buttons and the analog stick in the middle, but Steven managed to help her select her character, which was Peach.

Before the race started, Steven decided to let her know of the controls. "Okay, so A is to accelerate, B is to use items from item boxes, the stick in the middle is to steer and L & R is to drift."

"I think I've got it down." Lapis said.

And so the race started. Lapis got a little sidetracked with moving as she kept running into walls but eventually managed to get past it and get used to the controls on the awkwardly shaped controller. Steven was currently in the lead, but they were only on Lap 2. Lapis managed to pick up a item from the rainbow coloured item boxes and used it to try and get herself forward in the race.

The item she got was a triple mushroom that allowed her to go faster and get further into the lead. Eventually, she managed to get into 1st place and were now on the final lap. Steven tried to surpass her, but a red shell struck him down from his chance to try and get forward. Eventually, the race ended with Lapis winning in 1st.

"I guess I beat you!" Lapis giggled, giving Steven a playful smirk.

"I guess you did, but can you keep it up in the next race?" Steven responded playfully, going onto the next race.

And so, for the next few hours, the two played a few more races. Steven had managed to win one but was soon overtaken by Lapis in the last two. Eventually she won the multiplayer game in it. Then, Steven decided to switch to another game, a game that Lapis could also easily learn.

And that game was Super Smash Bros.

And again, the two spent most of their time trying their best to beat each other in the game, with Lapis managing to win a few matches and Steven too and sometimes in a few instances being beaten by the Computer players they had put into the game.

From this experience, Lapis really felt like the two were becoming much closer than she ever thought they could be. She was really having a great time with Steven and he was having a great time with Lapis. It felt nice to the ocean gem that she was finally growing much closer to the hybrid, which is what she wanted if he was to finally notice her true feelings for him.

Eventually, they moved on from playing video games and moved onto going into the barn and helping Peridot with making some new meep morps, which Steven was obliged to help with. They spent the next few hours building a meep morp of yesterday's experience, where they used scrap metal to make the hand ships that the gems came in and a few other materials to make the gems and the soldier gems that White sent. It was fun to make the sculpture and at one point Lapis decided to play with Steven a bit as she used her water wings and her hydrokinesis to have a small water fight with the hybrid. But even after the playful water fight they had together, they eventually finished making the meep morp with Peridot.

Eventually, night came and Steven and Lapis were inside the house, talking among each other with the other gems about what they did today while Steven was eating his dinner. Finally, it was time for him to head to bed. He put on his yellow pyjamas, brushed his teeth, polished his gem and then made his way to his bed.

As he was about to head to sleep, he noticed that Lapis hadn't gone back to the barn yet. "Is something up, Lapis?"

"Actually, Steven..." Lapis started. "I was wondering if I could sleep with you tonight. You know, like one of those 'slumber parties' that I've seen when me and Peridot watch CPH. I thought it'd be nice if we did it, since we've mostly spent most of the day together..."

Steven was a little surprised at what she wanted to do, but since she spent the entire day with him and enjoyed it and that he could trust her, he agreed with a smile.

"Sure. I don't mind."

Lapis nodded as she got under the covers with Steven and laid next to him on his comfortable bed. It was much more comfortable than the hammock that Lapis usually slept in when she was in the barn. It felt nice. Not just because the bed was more comfortable than the hammock, but because she was with Steven. She felt those warm feelings in her non-existent heart as she decided to hug the one she loved most like he was her teddy bear.

Steven was a little surprised at her movement, but smiled as he turned off his nightlight. "Goodnight, Lapis."

And so, the two fell asleep. The house now quiet after a long day spent together. Their bond much closer than before.


	15. The Mission

Meanwhile, on Homeworld...

White Diamond slammed her fist down on her throne angrily as she stared at the Commander of the lead ship who came to her with news she didn't want to hear. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY MANAGED TO OUTPOWER YOU?!"

"M-My diamond! Please! I can explain!" Commander Tourmaline worryingly spoke out, doing the diamond salute in panic.

"You better have a good explanation why this went completely off course!" White growled, standing up from her throne and using her abilities to lift the Tourmaline up into the air and close to her face. "Now, if you value your existence, speak up!"

"M-My Diamond... They... T-They simply just overpowered us with the amount of power they had against us! I mean, how are you supposed to win a fight against a rebel team with two former Diamonds at their side?!" Tourmaline explained in the best way she could. "We were no match for them by the end!"

White simply stared into the Tourmaline's eyes before sighing and throwing her back down onto the ground, causing the Tourmaline to groan in pain. "I guess you are correct about Yellow and Blue managing to outpower you as they now align with those Crystal Gems ever since Pink's escape a while back. I just need to simply find a way to prevent them from assisting them the next time I send another wave of gems after Pink and those gems of hers..."

"Does this mean I get to leave quietly, my Diamond?" Tourmaline asked in a worried tone, hoping that the lead Diamond would allow her plea.

White looked down at the Tourmaline with an evil smirk on her face. "In this case, it would be a yes. But since you failed me as a commander..."

She then zapped the Tourmaline with her mind control beam, causing the gem to lose her normal colour and turn a completely grey and white colour, just like White's Pearl. "I'm going to remove the flaws you once had and make sure you don't fail me again..."

The Tourmaline stood back up from the floor and looked up at White in a t-pose position. White looked at her and waved her hand toward an exit. "Tourmaline, you are dismissed."

"Yes, my Diamond." The now controlled Tourmaline said in a forced tone as they walked out of White's throne room through the door White had motioned to.

White let out a sigh and sat back down at her throne. "Why does my Starlight have to be this difficult?"

She then looked over at her Pearl and motioned her to come toward the head diamond. "Pearl, please bring in Emerald. I have something I'd like to propose to her..."

Back on Earth...

The morning sunrise rose from the horizon once again as the sky glowed a bright orange and the sun started to cast its light upon the Temple, Barn and the palanquins the Diamonds resided in. In the house, it was all quiet. Lapis and Steven were still sound asleep as the sunrise continued.

After the day the two spent together yesterday, the two were tired out from all the stuff they did together and right now, looked at peace as the water gem cuddled with the hybrid like if he was her teddy bear.

During the night, the water gem had quite the amazing sight as she slept. Steven called them dreams, which she learnt after she had her first one a few days after she moved into the barn with Peridot after she was freed from Jasper inside Malachite. The first dream she had was of her and Steven flying across America when he showed the gem the kinds of places she could stay at instead of where she didn't want to be. But this dream was much different.

Ever since her feelings for Steven continued to develop more and more, her dreams were a bit centred on her and Steven more. This dream involved her and Steven on the hilltop above the Temple and near the lighthouse having what Steven would call a picnic together. The two were chatting away happily together in the dream also, and then afterwards they went on the beach and played in the sea together. It made Lapis feel happy inside, that she knew that she was getting closer to the Pink Diamond hybrid and much closer to confessing her feelings for him.

She eventually woke up from her dream, she stretched out and let out a short yawn. She looked to the window by her side and saw the rising sun by the East of the beachfront town. She then looked back at Steven, who was still sound asleep it seemed.

Lapis looked at him and smiled, he looked quite cute asleep. He was letting out short breaths as he continued to be in his asleep status. She then suddenly felt the urge to put her lips on his cheek and kiss him. She had sometimes seen the gems kiss him on either his forehead or his cheek before he went to sleep. She even knew that people would sometimes kiss each other on the lips, which she learnt obviously from 'Camp Pining Hearts' when she watches it with Peridot in the barn together. She knew it meant that the two people who kiss each other on the lips are in love with each other.

She slowly put a hand near his lips, but soon retracted it as she thought long and hard in her head, that now wasn't the best time. She knew she had to take it slow, but not too slow. She wanted to give him a kiss on his lips, but doing it now wasn't the best time. She still needed to show Steven that she had feelings for him and doing this action now would be jumping the gun.

So she simply decided to give him a peck on his cheek, pressing her blue lips on his cheek and kissing it. This then caused Steven to shift in his sleep and then open his eyes slowly as he too got up from the bed and stretched out and yawning, but a bit longer than Lapis' yawn. He then turned to Lapis.

"Morning Lapis." Steven spoke, a bit of tiredness in his voice. "You sleep well last night?"

"I slept fine. I also had another 'dream' as you call it." Lapis responded.

"What was it about?" Steven asked.

"I dreamed that you and me were on the cliff top above the Temple having what you call a 'picnic' together and then the two of us went playing in the beach." Lapis answered. "It was nice dream, better than the bad ones I had in the past... about.."

"It's okay, Lapis. You don't have to talk about those days. They're gone now. But still, your dream sounded great." Steven said.

"What did you dream about?" Lapis asked back.

"Oh I dreamed about me and Padparacha playing a game of chess." Steven replied.

Lapis turned her head in confusion. "Huh?" 

"Yeah I know, it doesn't make much sense." Steven said. "Don't know why I dreamed about that, but I can't really control my dreams yet. I mean you can, but being able to lucid dream is kinda hard."

"Lucid dreaming?" Lapis inquired.

"It's where you're aware that you are dreaming and you are able to gain control of it." Steven briefly explained.

Steven then looked at his alarm clock, which read 8:03am. He then got out of bed and made his way to the bathroom. "I've just remembered something! I got to check on Lars and the Off Colours today!"

Now you may be wondering, Lars and the Off Colours have returned from space? Yes, they have. In the past month, they finally arrived back on Earth after a long time flying through the cosmos hiding away from Emerald and making the way home. And only a few weeks ago, did they finally arrive back on Earth. Steven was definitely happy to see Lars and the Off Colours again, as it had been a while since he last talked to them. The Off Colours seemed happy to finally be on Earth after all that Lars talked about it, but were slightly panicked after they saw Yellow and Blue Diamond on Earth with the gems. But Steven managed to calm them down about the Diamonds after telling the Off Colours and Lars that they were on their side now, which managed to work.

Now, Lars continues to live with his parents and the Off Colours since they decided it would be best to stay with him. Lars also managed to reconcile with Sadie and reunite with her. The two even proclaimed their love for each other and are now a couple as boyfriend and girlfriend.

Anyway, now that you know about what went on after Lars and the Off Colours arrived on Earth, lets get back to the story.

Steven then went into the bathroom to wash up and get changed from his PJs into his normal wear. It didn't take long as he came out off the bathroom after spending 15 minutes in there getting ready. He left the bathroom and then ate breakfast consisting of cereal while Lapis sat next to him.

He then grabbed his red hoodie and put on his salmon pink flip-flops. "I'm gonna head out early, so if you see the gems, tell them I'm over at Lars' place and I'll be back in an hour or two."

"Okay Steven." Lapis responded, nodding toward him.

He then closed the screen door of his house and made his way through town and toward Lars' house, which was a bit far from Steven's house but he didn't mind taking a walk there. He enjoyed the fresh morning breeze against his skin as he made his way over to his pink friend's abode. The town was a bit awake, with a few dog walkers and a few people, including Bill Dewey opening up the Big Donut, opening up their businesses for the day ahead.

After a few minutes of walking, he reached Lars' house, which hadn't changed much except that Fluorite was outside the house in the backyard since she couldn't fit inside the house (obviously). She saw Steven as he approached the front door.

"Hello.... again.... Steven..." The 6-gem fusion greeted.

"Hey Fluorite!" Steven greeted back. "Is Lars in?"

"He.... should.... be...." Fluorite answered the hybrid, in her granny-like voice.

Steven gave her a thumbs up and turned back to the door before he rang the doorbell. He heard a few footsteps on the other side of the door before the door opened to reveal Lars' mother, Martha.

"Good morning Steven. Are you here to see Lars?" She answered.

"Yeah. I'm just coming to check on him. Along with the Off Colours too." Steven replied back.

"Come on in." Martha motioned for Steven to enter her house. "Lars is up in his room still with Sadie but I'll let him know you're here."

Steven nodded and entered the house. He then went to the living room and sat down on the couch, where Rutile and Rhodonite were also sitting. "Hey Steven!"

"Hey Rutile! Hey Rhodonite!" He greeted to them. "How are you three this fine morning?"

"We're doing good." Rhodonite responded. "I have to say it was a bit tricky to settle into this new lifestyle Lars gave us, but these two humans that take care of Lars have done a good job of helping us settle in."

"Dante and Martha are very nice to us, especially for Pad." One of the Rutile twins spoke.

"I'm glad they're treating you well." Steven said. "How's Lars doing?"

"He's doing fine. He's introduced us to this Sadie he knows recently." The other Rutile twin replied.

"She's very nice too." The first twin added. "I can see why Lars is attracted to her."

Steven chuckled. "Well, they are in a relationship together."

And after a few moments of talking to each other, Lars came down the stairs rubbing his eyes as he made his way to the living room wearing a t-shirt with a snake on it along with some black pants and some grey socks. He then noticed Steven sitting alongside Rutile and Rhodonite. "Oh, hey Steven."

"Morning Lars." Steven responded. "How are you?"

"Bit tired from last night's date with Sadie but doing okay generally." Lars said. "We went to see a double feature down at the theatre a bit far from town. It was a long 4 hours I'll say, but we both enjoyed it."

"Is Sadie doing good?" Steven then asked.

"Yeah, she's good. I gotta say, I'm impressed at how you managed to help her become a rockstar." Lars answered. "The music she and her band make is pretty good. I'm proud of ya, Steven."

"Thanks Lars." Steven spoke. "By the way, where is Sadie?"

"She must've left earlier in the morning. She was with me last night in bed and then I wake up to seeing a note from her saying she left early so she could head home." Lars replied.

"She must have some stuff she needs to do today." Steven suggested.

"Probably." Lars remarked.

The two sat in silence for a bit until Martha came into the living room and asked the two if they wanted a drink. Steven asked for orange juice and so did Lars. She went into the kitchen and got the two glasses of orange juice.

As Steven sipped on his juice, Lars decided to ask Steven something that he'd hadn't had in a while. "So... how are you dealing with the loss of.... you-know-who?"

Steven froze for a few seconds. It had been quite a while since anyone had asked that. The last person who probably asked that was probably Connie's mom, Priyanka. It had only been a week or so since he last talked to her and he'd almost forgotten he spoke with her mom a month after she died.

Steven took a while to respond, but eventually did. "I'm getting a little better I think... But a few days ago, I had a nightmare. A nightmare about something horrible..."

Lars then looked at the hybrid in concern. "What do you mean?"

"I had a nightmare that I killed everyone..." Steven responded, his voice sounding quite scared. "I killed the gems, I killed my family... I-I even killed C-Connie... It was so.. so horrifying to see..."

"Dang Steven... I'm really sorry you had to envision those horrible images." Lars spoke in comfort to the hybrid.

"It wasn't your fault Lars. But at least I'm starting to get over her death a bit." Steven replied to his pink friend. "The gems have helped me out a lot, especially Lapis. She's been spending more time with me and much more than we often do. But I'm not complaining, I enjoy Lapis' company. But I sometimes wonder why she's wanting to spend some more time with me. Is it because-"

But just before he could finish his sentence, his phone started ringing. He picked up his mobile phone to see that it was Pearl who was calling him. He pressed answer and put the phone to his ear. "Yeah? What is it Pearl?"

"Steven, could you come back to the Temple? We have a mission and we need you to come along." Pearl spoke back to him.

"Yeah, I can come back. I'll head back to the Temple now." Steven answered.

"Okay then. I'll see you then. Bye Steven!" Pearl said before she hung up the phone.

Steven then put his phone away before drinking the rest of his juice and getting up from the couch. "I gotta go, the gems want me to come on another mission."

"I can understand. Thanks for stopping by." Lars said.

Steven nodded before opening the door to leave. "No prob Lars. I'll see you later."

Lars waved back at him until Steven shut the door behind him. He then made his way back home to the Temple and opened his door, where he saw all the gems, including the Diamonds, standing near the warp pad as Garnet gave the run down on what the mission was about.

"Hey guys I'm here!" Steven greeted, running up to them. "So, what's the mission?"

"There's a few corrupted gems at the Beta Kindergarten that Jasper left behind. We need to take care of them before they cause any more possible harm." Garnet explained.

"How many to be exact?" Yellow asked.

"I've foreseen a possible 3 corrupted gems there. I'm not completely sure, my future vision isn't always accurate." Garnet responded.

"Well, lets get there and take care of them then." Amethyst spoke, summoning her whip.

The gems nodded and so Steven, Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, Lapis, Peridot, Bismuth, Yellow and Blue Diamond stepped onto the warp pad and warped over to the Beta Kindergarten, which Steven hadn't gone to ever since the time he and Peridot had to capture another corrupted gem that they tried to catch all day.

The beam of light at the warp pad at the Beta Kindergarten phased away as all the gems that stood upon it appeared on it as they looked around the deserted kindergarten. It still looked like how it did when Steven last visited. The injectors, holes, and rocks were all still there.

The gems stepped off the warp pad and made their way down to the main area of the kindergarten below the warp pad. Garnet then rounded everyone up and gave their positions for where they'd all go to catch the corrupted gems.

"Alright, here's the plan. Me, Pearl and Bismuth will head to the west of here, Blue and Yellow will help us spot out the corrupted gems since they can help us by giving us a high tower sight of this place. Steven and Lapis, you'll go south and search there. Amethyst and Peridot, you'll go north. And Blue and Yellow will go East after they've done their overhead look of the area." Garnet explained. "Everyone got all that?"

All the gems nodded. Blue and Yellow looked at each other before shapeshifting into their regular height and looking around the area of the Beta Kindergarten. They searched far and wide for the corrupted gems before shrinking down into a regular gems' size and giving the gems details of what they say.

"We saw some movement down near where that giant hole is in the south. And also more movement in the East and North." Blue said. "However, they might move positions so they can ambush any of you so be vigilant."

"Alright." Garnet stated, summoning her gauntlets. "Gems, move out!"

And so, each group went in the direction they were assigned and began their search for any of the 3 possible corrupted gems in the Beta Kindergarten.

Steven and Lapis walked south of the warp pad they came from and kept their guard up just in case a gem tried to jump them and take them by surprise. Lapis had her sword out while Steven kept his shield handy as they searched the area.

Lapis kept close to Steven, holding her sword tightly in her hands. Since they wasn't any water in the area they were in, she could only rely on using her sword to protecting him. After all, she was his knight. She could also use her water wings as fists, but only if the gem pounced on her and was at a close enough range for Lapis to hit it with them.

The two then stopped when they heard some growling coming from somewhere near them. It sounded a bit close, but was probably an echo from it. Steven held his shield close to his chest while Lapis held her sword back, ready to strike the gem when it popped out.

As they walked closer to the place where they heard it, the growling just got louder and louder. It was definitely one of the corrupted gems Garnet had foreseen. The two kept on getting closer to the beast.

And closer.

And closer.

And closer.

Until they finally saw the beast, which was clawing at the walls of the kindergarten like it was trying to climb up it so the corrupted gem could escape this place. Steven was about to throw his shield to get its attention, but Lapis stopped him before he could do that.

"I've got an idea." She whispered to him. "How about I fly us above the corrupted gem and then you can strike it from above?"

"Sounds like it could work." Steven responded to Lapis' idea with confidence in his voice.

Lapis nodded and then picked up Steven before using her wings to fly the both of them above the corrupted gem beast. Once they were completely above the gem, Steven looked over to Lapis and nodded, showing that he was ready to be dropped on top of the gem.

Lapis let go of Steven and allowed him to fall toward the corrupted gem while pulling his shield back and then throwing it toward the corrupted gem. The shield hit the gem in the head, causing it to screech loudly and then spot Steven falling towards them.

He was just about to use his abilities to float above the gem, but was soon swiped out of the air by the corrupted gems' claw and into one of the walls of the kindergarten.

"Steven!" Lapis cried out before diving down toward the corrupted gem that was now dashing toward Steven with her sword still in hand.

She then swiped her sword toward the corrupted gem, causing it to screech in pain before trying to claw at Lapis, who managed to dodge it before it could hit her. She then flew toward Steven and helped him up. "You okay, Steven?"

"I've had worse." Steven replied, dusting off some of the sand from his pants.

The beast then turned toward them and charged toward them, only to bump into the wall of the kindergarten as Lapis picked up Steven and flew the both of them out of danger before the gem could land another hit on them.

They landed behind the gem and charged toward it, with Steven flinging his shield towards the beast and Lapis striking the gem with her sword once more. It screeched in pain again, but it still wasn't showing any signs of giving up.

The gem then swiped Lapis into the wall with it's heavy tail, causing her to slam into the canyon wall hard but thankfully not hard enough to crack her gem. Steven then worryingly ran toward Lapis, who seemed to have trouble getting up due to how hard she was slammed into the wall by the gem.

"Are you okay? Is your gem cracked?" Steven asked in a worried tone.

"No, I'm good." Lapis groaned, falling to the floor after another attempt to get up failed. "Come help me up, Steven."

Lapis reached out a hand toward Steven. Steven then took her hand and embraced her to help the gem up. Unknowingly to Lapis, she didn't notice that her gem was glowing and so was Steven's.

And just before she got up with help from Steven, the two were encased in a bright light. And after that, it all went dark for a few seconds.


	16. Spirit Diamond

The beast that was about to charge into them again was stopped once the bright light that surrounded Steven and Lapis glowed brightly into the corrupted gem's eyes, causing it to screech from the sudden blindness of the light and run to one of the walls of the Kindergarten.

Neither of the both of them even expected to see this bright light surround the two of them, since they hadn't done anything that synchronised them together. It caught them completely off guard too.

Their forms combined together and their gems aligned in their original positions as the bright light surrounding them began to fade away, revealing a light purple skinned gem with a combination of Lapis and Steven's hair colours and some of Steven's curly hair. The clothing they wore was also a combination of what they were wearing. The fusion was wearing Lapis' Crystal Gem vest under Steven's signature red and yellow star shirt while also wearing his jean shorts over Lapis' baggy pants. And their overall appearance was different too. The fusion had four arms and also three eyes, two of which were on the left side of the face and the one on the right having the eyepatch Steven wore over the eye White took out and a small scar across it. And in addition, the water wings Lapis had were tinted a light pink, probably from Steven's gem being a Pink Diamond, of course.

The new fusion picked themselves up slowly as they rubbed their eyes to rid of any slight blindness from the bright light they were previously encased in. They looked around themselves in confusion about what had just happened before they finally saw the beast that tried to charge into them. And just as the beast spotted them, it roared once more and charged towards them. The fusion luckily managed to float upwards in time just before it could strike them, causing the gem beast to again slam into another wall of the kindergarten.

While in the air, the fusion looked all over their body at what had happened to them. "W-What happened to us, Steven?"

That name coming out of their mouth sounding more in Lapis' tone of voice was enough to make the Steven half of the fusion also start checking their new combined body as he tried to put his response into words. "I... I.. I think we... fused?"

When the Lapis half of the fusion heard the word 'fused', it almost sent her into a panic, having major flashbacks to the last time she fused with someone and the whole experience being horrifying to go through. "A-Ah! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! I..I-"

"Lapis, it's okay." The Steven half of the fusion comfortingly spoke to the Lapis half of them. "It's not like before. It's not Malachite. You're with me, remember?"

And just like that, in an instant, her panic faded away as his words calmed her down. "Y-You're right..."

The fusion looked at their own body again as a small smile formed on their face. "It's... It's okay! I'm okay, I'm-"

But just then, the corrupted gem beast had just recovered from its previous charge at them and was now preparing to try and hit them a second time. The corrupted gem snarled and growled as it pushed back its hind legs in a stance, the orange sand brushed away behind the corrupted gem as it was carried away by the breeze in the Beta Kindergarten.

"Looks like we got a job to finish." The Steven half of the fusion spoke. "You ready Lapis?"

The fusion then drew out Lapis' blue sword from the scabbard on their back while also summoning Steven's shield. "I'm always ready, Steven."

And with that, the fusion between Steven and Lapis charged toward the beast as Lapis' water wings summoned behind her and flew towards it. The fusion then flung the shield toward the beast, hitting it square in the face and causing it to screech in pain.

The fusion then took the chance to get a hit on the beast with the sword, slashing it against the beast's form. It wasn't enough to poof it however, as the beast had seemed to have a bit more tougher skin as the corrupted gem seemed to be a Jasper gem, which were tough even when they were corrupted.

They then took to the skies and flew upwards until reaching a height just nearly touching the clouds. The fusion then dove downwards while their blue sword was drawn out and pointing toward the corrupted gem. And as they flew past the corrupted Jasper, they swung their sword against the beast again, causing it to once more screech before managing to swipe them out of the air and crash into the ground, but thankfully not enough to cause damage to either of the gems on their body.

"This corrupted gem is no joke!" The fusion said in what sounded like Lapis' voice. "With how it's managing to hold up with its toughened form, we need a new plan to take it down."

"Yeah. I don't think hard swipes with our sword and shield will help much with defeating this corrupted gem." The fusion then spoke in what sounded like Steven's voice. "Even if it did, it's not enough. Any ideas Lapis?"

"W-Well..." The Lapis side of the fusion coming in. "There is this one ability that might work."

The fusion then nodded to themselves, which was Steven's response. "Then let's do it."

The fusion holstered their sword into the scabbard on their back and stretched out their arms. The clouds suddenly covered the area around them and turned a dark grey colour. The fusion then summoned their water wings and flew upwards into the air, their arms still stretched out toward the corrupted gem. Then, the fusion swung their arms downwards, which then caused sharp icicles to fall upon the area at a heavy rate. It seemed that Lapis had frozen the water in the clouds and then turned them into what was falling on the corrupted gem.

The icicles crashed into the corrupted gem as it tried to avoid the falling ice from the sky. But to no avail, the icicles were coming from everywhere as they continued to fall onto the beast. The corrupted Jasper screeched as it got weaker and weaker the more the icicles fell onto it. While the fusion was covering themselves with their water wings to shield themselves from the falling sharp icicles.

Eventually, the beast fell to the ground as it had lost its energy to try and avoid the falling icicles. This gave the fusion a good window to poof it. They then flew upwards into the air, pulled out their sword and shield and dove downwards once again to strike it. They first stunned it by bashing the shield at its face and then taking one last swipe at it with their sword. And at last, the gem finally poofed, with the only thing left of it being it's gem.

The fusion sighed in relief before unfusing back into the familiar ocean gem and Pink Diamond hybrid. The two looked at each other and laughed right before Lapis picked him up and swung him around in happiness that she managed to fuse with the one she had the most feelings for.

"I can't believe we managed to fuse!" Lapis laughed joyfully, her cheeks blushing a dark blue as she then set down the hybrid. "I didn't think we were able to do it, but we did!"

"Y-Yeah we did!" Steven responded, trying to stabilise himself after being spun around by Lapis. "But why did we fuse so easily? We weren't synchronised in some way..."

"Well I did remember you telling me and Peridot about how you and Amethyst fused for the first time and how all you did was just... hug. And that's how you fused with her." Lapis explained. "So yeah, it seems you don't need to synchronise much to fuse, only with contact of those you're close to."

"Thinking about it now, that's probably the case." Steven said. "Anyway, let's bubble this gem and go find the others."

Lapis nodded as she watched Steven pick up the gemstone and bubble it before sending it to the temple. The two then walked together back to the others, smiling at each other that they managed to fuse and use said fusion to beat the corrupted gem.

"So... what are we gonna call the new fusion, Steven?" Lapis asked.

"Hmmm..." Steven placed his finger and his thumb on his chin in a 'thinking' position. He thought about it for a few moments before finally coming up with a name.

"I got it!" Steven snapped his fingers in realisation. "Spirit Diamond!"

Lapis chuckled a bit and ruffled Steven's hair. "Spirit Diamond sounds perfect."

"But... how are we gonna explain this to the others?"

"We'll tell them at another time, Lapis." Steven told the water gem. "For now, let's head back to the others and finish this mission."

Lapis nodded once more and followed Steven as they headed back to the gems, who were probably occupied with one of the corrupted gems Yellow saw when she scouted out for any corrupted gems.

Later on....

"YOU WHAT?!" Peridot and Amethyst exclaimed in complete surprise. "YOU MANAGED TO FUSE WITH STEVEN?!"

"As crazy as that sounds, it's true." Lapis spoke. "When me and Steven found the corrupted gem, it beat us down pretty easily. And when I helped Steven up, we somehow fused. Into a beautiful new fusion we named Spirit Diamond."

"Dang Lapis! You're already making some major moves on Ste-man!" Amethyst responded. "I mean, I didn't expect this to happen but I'm happy that you actually managed to fuse with him."

"But... aren't you afraid of fusion Lapis?" Peridot asked in a slight confusion. "You know... after being trapped with Jasper in Malachite?"

"I was afraid at first, but then I realised that with Steven, when I fuse with him, I don't feel the same way I did with Malachite. It felt new. It felt right. Probably because I fused with the one I love the most.." Lapis answered. "And with becoming Spirit Diamond for the first time, I think my fear of fusion disappeared. All thanks to creating a fusion of love."

"I am glad that you have overcome that fear, Lazuli." Peridot said. "But anyway, when are you gonna tell Garnet and Pearl about them? I'd like to see how they'd react to you two finally fusing!"

"They'd probably do the same thing they did when me and Steven fused for the first time. Or something new, they might do something else after what happened last time." Amethyst added.

Lapis was lost for words at this point. She didn't know if she wanted to tell those two about the new fusion. Even if they did talk to her about her feelings for Steven and gave her some advice, she didn't know how they would react to the news of her and Steven fusing together. But she knew she couldn't hide it forever, as they would eventually find out sometime sooner or later.

Lapis sighed. "I don't know you two. I just don't know how'd they react to the news. I know I can't hide it for long, but I need to tell them someday."

"I'd think about it for a few days and once you feel like you're ready to tell them, talk to Steven about telling them about the new fusion and then go ahead and do it." Amethyst suggested.

"I agree with Amethyst. Think it through, then go tell those two about Spirit Diamond!" Peridot added with a tone of agreement with her purple friend.

Lapis nodded. "Alright then. It might take long, but I'll eventually tell them."

And with that, they then talked about how the fusion looked and what they could do as Spirit Diamond, with the freezing the moisture in the air and then throwing it down onto the beast and being able to take advantage of Steven's shield. This went on for a while until Amethyst left the two barn gems to go to the Temple. Before she left, she gave Lapis a wink to tell her that she has confidence in the water gem to eventually tell the others about Spirit Diamond. Lapis nodded once more before heading to her hammock and resting there after putting her sword away in the barn.


End file.
